For me, the journey of creating contemporary art started early in life. It’s a story that many artists share. Learning, working, evolving and developing a unique in style at some point. As things naturally evolved, I imagined a way to put my contemporary art for sale, and the online world seemed like the logical next step. That’s how Darius Martin dot com was born. A misconception exists, that high-end art is very expensive. That is only true for established artists. The alternative is to buy works by emerging artists. Buying art is a long-term commitment. The inexpensive modern art for sale available today might be the next big thing in the future. Good original art should be affordable but not cheap, as such work has no current value, and no chance for growth. So, choose wisely.
Showcasing art for sale online is something I believe many artists contemplate. But selling artwork on the Internet is more than uploading images on a website. When I created this platform for my art, my goal was to build an online business that would suit my lifestyle as an artist. I wanted to create something original that would offer quality beyond the art itself. In other words, beyond selling high end modern artwork, I want to offer buyers an experience. When people purchase my art, they not only get a unique work of contemporary art, they get a professional service, complete with a Certificate of Authenticity and provenance for every piece. I only sell original, one-of-a-kind artworks, all hand painted, drawn, manufactured or sculpted. All my artworks are signed on the back (I don’t like front signatures), and have a sticker that contains all the relevant information for that particular art piece, plus an additional signature.
This section showcases the works that are on sale, pieces that have been sold or not available are still exhibited, for viewing purpose only. At this stage the website only hosts a small selection of art for sale: original works, mainly paintings and drawings. In the near future three more categories will be added: sculpture, photography and installation.
My paintings are a combination between abstract and figurative, created in a style that merges classical techniques and rules of lighting and composition with a modern subject. Although not instantly apparent, I view my paintings as conceptual pieces rather than descriptive works. They’re built around a conceptual, philosophical core of ideas, that incorporate personal symbolic meaning and external input from social sciences and other artforms.
Oil painting has fascinated me from an early age. No other medium is so closely associated with art and has a comparable transition through the ages. I can’t say for sure why oil paintings have such a magnetic aura or why they generate such mystique. It’s probably because they’re able to create such vivid imagery, where, at a visual level, even abstract creations have a distinctive life-like appearance and dynamic.
I always loved creating drawings, but lately I started viewing drawing in whole new light. Rather than viewing it as a simple starting point for creating more complex work, I try to push the boundaries of the medium and create complete works, including sculptures where I use lines to create tridimensional vectors and tromp l’oeil effects to emulate real space by combining real shadows with applied ones. I call this drawing technique “fake object”.
The adaptability of pencil drawing has enabled me to create complex works that go far beyond sketching and doodling, pushing the perceived limitations into the realm of tridimensional art, towards sculpture and installation. Pencil drawings have such a raw, almost telluric feel to them, due to the mineral characteristics of graphite, that the possibilities for creating symbolism are infinite.