Mandy Martin

The work was in response to Tom Roberts' monumental painting of the opening of Federal Parliament in Melbourne in 1901, which in those days was hung in the High Court.

Red Ochre Cove was reputed to be the largest work ever commissioned in Australia.

Martin worked in an old cow shed in the rustic Canberra suburb of Pialligo where she relied on scaffolding to create her large triptych.

She described the painting "as an Australian coastal landscape set in an industrial timespan".

Martin said she was "thrilled she was selected by the Parliament House Construction Authority", praising it for "its entrepreneurial attitude in commissioning works by younger and less established artists and obtaining works that suited the concept of the building, rather than staying solely with the more established names".

Mandy Martin (18 November 1952 – 10 July 2021) was a contemporary Australian painter, printmaker and teacher.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1952, Martin attended Presbyterian Girls' College (now Seymour College), which did not offer art classes at the time.

She was involved in the development of feminist art in Australia from the mid-1970s and as exhibited widely in Australia and internationally.

In recent years she used the art she created as part of the ongoing debate on climate change, an area in which she was "prolifically active".

Martin completing her arts training at the South Australian School of Art (1972–1975).

She exhibited her works on paper, including strongly politically-motivated posters (produced as limited edition prints, not as posters).

As her concepts developed, Martin explored the medium of oil paint.

Martin made her mark early in her career in the 1975 exhibition Fantasy and Reality, organised by the Women's Art Movement at the University of Sydney with Jude Adams, Frances Budden and Toni Robertson.

In 1976, Martin was part of a group exhibition celebrating the United States Bicentennial in the small group exhibition America As We See It at the Hogarth Galleries in Sydney, showing alongside Brett Whiteley and Ann Newmarch.

Martin had initially pursued her creative expression through producing works on paper.

Even though her work had long been about making social commentary, an exhibition of her prints on paper in 1977 examined her restrained interpretation of the subjects of corruption in big business and the exploitation of workers.

This exhibition could be seen as a pivotal point in her career as Martin transferred her method of expression through prints and posters to other art mediums, importantly painting with oils.

The art critic Sasha Grishin had admired her drawing but hoped the artist would find a less literal way of expressing her ideas.

Based in Canberra for many years, she was also a lecturer at the Australian National University (ANU) School of Art from 1978 to 2003.

As well as being a visual artist, Martin was an adjunct professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment.

In 1978, James Mollison, director of the soon-to-be-opened National Gallery of Australia (NGA), was purchasing works, described as 'unconventional', for the fast growing national collection, and acquired a number of her prints.

Martin also sold her feminist themed, anti-Vietnam posters directly to the Australian War Memorial.

There was a resurgence of interest in poster art in the last 1980s and Martin's early poster work was included in an exhibition at Australian Girls Own Gallery (aGOG) in Canberra as the issues dealt with in the mid-1970s had not changed.

Martin was working and exhibiting in a rapidly changing city.

In 1980 she had her first major exhibition of oil paintings on canvas at the Solander Gallery in Canberra.

The Canberra Times art critic Sasha Grishin praised her use of "thick, well-worked painterly and textured masses" and thought Martin creatively realised "her own sense of social imagery".

On the other hand, reviewing a 2022/23 exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery in The Australian, critic Christophe Allen described Martin's "handling of oil painting [as] clumsy and without any refinement or subtlety. ... the paint application is brutal and yet inexpressive."

Despite having to juggle her teaching and creating art, she would benefit from the increase in interest in Canberra-based artists and the stimulus to the art market that could reasonably be expected to accompany the build-up to the opening of the NGA in 1981.

Although not the winner of the 1982 Canberra Times Art Awards, Martin's stand out work Factory 2 was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria.

The then director Patrick McCaughey described the work as a "grim and impressive landscape".

Martin exhibited regularly, often with fellow lecturers at the School of Art in Canberra.

Her work was described as "flowing textured paintings and prints" and the local art critic found "boundless energy" in her dark industrial landscapes.

By 1985, her work was considered to have achieved drama and maturity.

Another milestone in Canberra's history was to impact on Martin's professional artistic standing.

Martin was commissioned to create a large painting, Red Ochre Cove, which when completed was 2.8 x, and was to be installed in the Main Committee Rooms in the new Australian Parliament House in 1988.

Prior to the opening in May 1988, Martin was also invited to contribute work to a major exhibition of works from the new Australian Parliament House art collection.

Art and Architecture was held at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space and Martin showed her work alongside internationally recognised Australian artists such as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams, Robert Klippel and Imants Tillers.

1988 continued to be an important year for Martin.

In August she exhibited drawings at the University Drill Hall Gallery at the Australian National University.

In 1992 Martin exhibited at The Ben Grady Gallery in Canberra in the exhibition Reconstructed narrative: Strzelecki Desert, Homage to Ludwig Becker "exploring the impact of man on the environment'. Martin retraced the footsteps of Becker through a series of industrial landscapes, a subject matter she had been increasingly exploring and was to become a recurrent theme in her work.