British-based artist Jason Martin most often works in monochromatic fields of pure pigment, brushing over them with a fine tool, similar in appearance to a comb, to create dynamic wave movements frozen in time and space in the material. Also sometimes working in hard surfaces such as aluminum, stainless steel, or Plexiglas, Martin’s resulting works perplex and challenge the viewer to question the nature of the materials making up what they see before them. Pieces such as his Behemoth (2012) have been exhibited internationally, and wowed at the Armory Show in New York, The Fine Arts Society in London, and Galerie Mario Sequeira in Braga, Portugal. artnet News caught up with the artist to ask him what exactly inspires his abstract works, and what he has in the pipeline.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I knew I wanted to be an artist when I was in my early teens—I found drawing and painting intuitive and natural—I felt I belonged to the world of making and doing.

Jason Martin, Zocalo (2013)
Copper, 17.7 x 13 in.
Photo courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.

What inspires you?
Nature and the sea and the freedom to imagine possibilities in color and form

Jason Martin, Terse (2009)
Pure pigment on panel, 23.6 x 18.1 in.
Photo courtesy of the artist and DEP ART.

If you could own any work of modern or contemporary art, what would it be?
Gustav Courbet’s l’Origine Du Monde, or The deep by Jackson Pollock, anything by Modigliani, the list could go on.

Jason Martin, Behemoth (2012)
Virgin cork and pure pigment (ivory black), 118.1 x 118.1 x 102.4 in.
Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Forsblom.

What are you working on at the moment?
I am working on 3 x 250 cm. (1.2 x 98.4 in.) square paintings, a maquette prototype for a sculpture, a planning application for an agricultural warehouse, my second harvest is next week, three bronze wall reliefs, and other bits and pieces.

When not making art, what do you like to do? 
Spend fun time with my two boys, further my natural water filter lake (think Giverny with a pontoon) fish, play cards, listen to music, swim, read, plan the logistics of stealing works by Rembrandt van Rijn.