In this episode, I sat down with Martin Poppelwell at the Melanie Roger gallery surrounded by his new work included in a recent group show.

Martin has established an impressive multi disciplinary practice, with paintings and ceramics complimenting one another.

Martin’s work is held in numerous public and private collections locally and internationally, including Te Papa Tongarewa, the Lawrence B. Benenson Collection in New York, Reydan Weiss Collection in NZ/Germany and Reverend Ian Brown Collection, Australia.

He is represented by SPA_CE Gallery in Napier and Melanie Roger gallery in Tamaki Makaurau.

There are images of the paintings and ceramics that we talk about on The Good Oil Martin Poppelwell Instagram Post for your reference.

You’ll hear Martin talk about how important to his overall practice studying ceramic design and production at the Whanganui Polytechnic has been, the origin of his grid motif and how it contributes to composition and philosophical approach to painting, how Samuel Beckett provided a new perspective on what his painting could be, the challenges he deliberately creates for himself in paintings and the time consuming, multi layered process he follows to prepare the surface of a canvas to make it look like there isn’t any preparation at all.