Daily Inspiration: Meet Pam Marton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pam Marton.

Hi Pam, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up in a home surrounded by artists and making art daily led me to major in Art Design at UCLA, Art teaching was my goal but elementary education was my destination. After working in education for almost 40 years, now I am retired and finally have time to paint. I have been a proud Principal of two West LA high performing National Blue Ribbon Elementary Schools. Community Magnet Charter School in Bel Air for 20 years and Fairburn Ave Elementary School in Westwood for the last 5 years of my career. In the interim I supervised Principals from the Palisades to Westchester. For 40 years I made sure every child I served was able to enjoy the excitement of creating. I am now finally able to create myself.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I started oil painting as a daily practice in 2016 when I was home from work for a few months recuperating from foot surgery. My first efforts were mostly derivative other artists. Now I have found my own style. I LOVE color – so all of my work is very bright and vibrant. When I decided that I had enough works to exhibit, I looked for opportunities to show my work. I was very excited to be invited to show at the Beverly Hills Art Show in October of 2022. This was my first time displaying my art and the response was very positive, yet I did not sell one thing! I was not deterred and continued to paint and in April of 2023 I showed again at the Beverly Hills Art Show and sold many paintings! Opportunities to exhibit my work evolved with my work showing at The Art Lounge on La Brea Ave. I loved having my work in a gallery where I could send patrons. After showing at the Montana Art Walk in fall of 2023 I was invited to be juried into the Ten Women Gallery on Montana Ave in Santa Monica but did not receive an offer. A few months later I was thrilled to be invited to join that wonderful group of 24 women artists all collaborating to show and sell their work. My work is always on exhibit at the Ten Women Gallery, and I have expanded my sales by creating other products with my paintings such as more affordable Giclee Prints, beautiful Scarves, Pouches, Coasters, Greeting Cards and other useful art items.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I celebrate the ever-changing symphony of color and form found in nature with oil paint. My vibrant paintings serve as a testament to the captivating beauty of foliage and palms, succulents, and landscapes inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and find solace in the vibrant and harmonious world that surrounds us all.

My signature style is that I start with a bright orange canvas underpainting and allow some orange to show through on the finished work. By painting side by side two hues directly opposite each other on the color wheel, such as blue and orange my painting vibrate with color! This complementary color pallet works well together because these colors balance each other visually. There is actually a scientific reason why these complementary colors look good together. The cones in your eyes use a careful balancing act to ensure that you see color correctly, when two opposite colors enter the eye, they stimulate both low-frequency cones and high frequency cones at the same time. My paintings are guaranteed to add positive energy to any room.
Early on, I recognized the enchanting allure of vibrant colors. The way sunlight bathes leaves in golden hues, the interplay of shadows and highlights on petals, and the myriad shades that dance across succulent leaves—all of these natural wonders spoke to my artistic soul. The inherent beauty and diversity of color in the natural world became my muse.

As an oil painter I work to translate my admiration for nature onto canvas. Each brushstrokes evoke the organic movements and delicate textures found in the natural world. Each stroke is a deliberate dance between color and form, bringing to life the intricacies of leaves, petals, palm fronds and succulent spines.
Through my painting I invite viewers to immerse themselves in a world where color reigns supreme. With vibrant compositions awaken the senses, eliciting emotions and sparking joy.

Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles serve as both a backdrop and an endless source of inspiration for my painting. The city’s botanical gardens, such as the Huntington Library and Gardens, Palisades Park in Santa Monica, Topanga and Malibu Beaches and the Santa Monica Mountains provide abundant opportunities for me to observe and capture the ever-changing beauty of foliage and landscapes.

I have recently been inspired by Pelin Air painting since a week’s long workshop with the Modern Impressionist Magazine in Loire Valley France this last summer. Now I paint outdoors all over the Westside on Friday mornings! I have had such fun capturing nature on these small works of oil on canvas.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
As a young child I excelled at anything artistic! My father was an amazing artist. In fact he was the Official Artist on the Second Byrd Expedition to Antarctica 1933-35. His paintings and pastels during that time are fantastic and still on display at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. After a successful career as an artist in New York he came to Hollywood to work as a Cinemaphotographer on such classics as “The Birds” and “Ben Hur”. On each location shoot he made pastel portraits of the stars! He met my Mom in a painting class at Hollywood High Adult school – so both my parents were artists. My Dad retired before I was born, so I had his inspiration a guidance full time as a child. My older brother David Paige is brilliant scientist and ended up as a Professor at UCLA and works for NASA and JPL. When I had to choose a college major, I knew I could never compete with his Math Science brain so I chose ART!

Pricing:

• Original oil paintings range in price from $285 for a small 8” x 10” framed to $2400 for a large 30” x 40” gallery wrapped canvas.
• Giclee Prints 10″x10” are $40 and 11” x14” are $48.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pammartonpaints.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pammartonpaints
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pam.marton.1