Artist Study: Delita Martin

Our Artist this term is Delita Martin, an American artist who is known for her printmaking and mixed-media art. 

We started off by learning about her life and work.  Delita Martin was born in Texas in 1972.  She knew she wanted to be an artist when she was only five years old as she was exposed to art through her father’s work as a carpenter and painter. She studied drawing and printmaking at university in Texas and later taught Art at a university in Arkansas.  Delita Martin uses various techniques including printmaking, painting and stitching which incorporate indigenous and modern art-making.  She founded her own studio, Black Box Press, and  is a founding member of Black Women of Print, a printmaking collective for Black women. Permanent collections of Delita Martin’s works are shown  in many museums across the United States.

We looked closely at some of her Art work and identified the range of materials and techniques that she had combined to create each one. Then we worked in our sketch books to record our knowledge and observations  and also to begin to explore her style using sketching and watercolours.

Inspired by her work and using all of the Art skills we have been learning and practising this year, we have created our own mixed media self portraits on canvases that were generously bought for us by the SVPA.

We are very proud of our finished artworks and now have a special piece of Art that we can treasure and keep to remind us of our time in Year 6.

We hope you like our portraits as much as we do!