About Robin
Robin Martin Brief Bio
Born 1951 in the UK, Robin grew-up in a small town in the Oxfordshire countryside. He excelled in art and craft from an early age, winning various local prizes for his efforts.
After finishing high school in Oxford, he completed his Art Foundation year at Banbury School of Art, before attending the three-year Diploma of Environmental Design course at The Wimbledon School of Art.
After graduation, he began studying physical theatre with Lindsay Kemp, the renowned mime, director, performance teacher of, and collaborator with David Bowie, Kate Bush and Steven Berkoff.
Robin subsequently joined The Lindsay Kemp Theatre Company, and during five years performed with them in eight countries (New York, Toronto, London, Rotterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Belgrade, Zagreb, Caracas).
During this time the company visited Australia for a year, with successful seasons in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and Robin met Vicki, his future wife.
The Company were invited to perform at The Caracas International Theatre Festival in 1979, receiving great acclaim and an extended season.
Robin was subsequently offered a residency teaching for a Theatrical Training Institution (CELCIT), and he decided to leave the Company and stay in Venezuela.
He was soon joined by his long-distance girlfriend, australian musician-composer Vicki Larnach.
Together they lived for 5 years in Caracas and Bogota, Colombia, collaborating on various creative projects in music, theatre and film, including “The Elephant Man“ and “The Rocky Horror Show”.
They formed their own band “El Celestial Rock Show,” fronted by Robin, and played many gigs around Caracas.
They also married and had their daughter, now designer, Jazmin Jackson.
In Venezuela Robin began to paint again, and held two successful solo exhibitions and received several private commissions.
The trio returned for a year to the Martin family home in Oxfordshire UK in 1985, to pass the last months of his ill mother Anne’s life with her, and support his grieving father Ted’s recovery from the loss. Robin obtained work there as a free-lance airbrush illustrator, and continued teaching Body Expression Sessions.
Since arriving back in Australia in 1986, apart from performing occasional roles in TV, film and theatre productions, Robin has mainly focused on developing and employing his skills in the visual arts, initially as a commercial illustrator and exhibiting artist.
Vicki and Robin subsequently separated, and in 1994 he formed a business with partner-artist Lindena Robb called “Mural Magic - fine art services”.
Together they completed a wide variety of projects for councils, schools, businesses and residences around Sydney and in Queensland.
In 2007 Lindena took up residence in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
Robin followed in 2009, joining the community of Blackheath, where he is currently based, and Lindena and Robin still occasionally collaborate on projects.
Robin Martin Artworks is the name under which Robin now works specialising in murals and other site-specific artworks, painted directly on walls, or on panels in his studio. These are subsequently attached, either permanently, or with the possibility of re-positioning, if required.
Since 1994, working in the Sydney area, Robin has accumulated vast experience by painting a wide variety of murals.
By combining the techniques of brushwork and spraying multiple layers of varying degrees of transparency, he is able to achieve exquisite results in depicting depth and atmosphere, with superb colour gradations and detail.
He has learned what materials, methods of preparation, and ways of painting make murals endure, particularly on external walls.
Through working in schools he has also developed unique ways of including many individual creators (up to 300+ so far), collaborating on single permanent large-scale exterior artworks that he composes and brings to fruition.