Martin Reid

Martin Reid is one of Britain's most exciting emerging artists, working primarily in charcoal and oil on glass. His hyperrealist portraits of animals, humans and cultural icons are built up with traditional Chinese dry brushes — a technique he developed over years spent living in South East Asia — producing a depth of tone and silence that sets his work apart.

A finalist on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, Martin's pieces have been exhibited and sold through galleries across the UK, including Chelmer Fine Art, Limited 2 Art, and Original Artshop. His most recent collection, Strength from Within, brings together animal and human portraits around themes of resilience and quiet power. Alongside the charcoal work, Martin paints on the reverse of glass in oil — a technique of his own making — producing pieces that glow with a depth of colour impossible in most other media.

In my own words

I didn't set out to be a charcoal artist. I set out to find something that could hold silence on a wall. Charcoal turned out to be that thing. The Chinese brushes let me lay down something close to breath — layers so fine they almost aren't there, until you step back and the whole face is looking at you.

The oil-on-glass pieces came later. I wanted colour. I wanted the opposite of the charcoal — saturated, luminous, almost stained-glass. Painting in reverse, behind the glass, forced me to think the work backwards, which is as close to meditation as my practice gets.

I make the work for the people who will live with it. That's the point. A piece that earns its place on the wall by still being the thing you look at in five years.