Unique Norfolk Studio Collection to be Auctioned
Unique Norfolk Studio Collection to be Auctioned
by Elizabeth Talbot
A two-part celebration of the work of Martin Walton (1939 – 2018), Norfolk artist and vice president and patron of the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Norfolk, is to be held at TW Gaze in Diss over the coming months.
Walton was born in Birmingham and excelled at art whilst at grammar school. He started painting seriously in 1954, about the time he discovered East Anglian artist Edward Seago (1910 – 1974) via the book “A Canvas to Cover” in Birmingham library. Seago’s style greatly influenced Walton’s creative development and ignited a deep-seated interest in the Norfolk landscape. Whilst planning a holiday with relatives living in Cromer, Walton wrote to Seago requesting a meeting and in August 1956 he spent a day painting in Seago’s studio, after which Seago remained a life-long friend and mentor. The following month Walton began two years of study at the Birmingham Collage of Arts and Crafts before returning to Norfolk to live. He took up residence in Ludham and, despite strong links with London during his career, remained in the village thereafter.
Part 1 of the Martin Walton Studio Collection will be included in The Gallery Sale at Diss Auction Rooms on the 15th September and comprises of approximately 40 works. There are oil and watercolour paintings, pastel studies, and etchings of mainly Norfolk Broadland scenes dating from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Part 1 of the collection focuses on his traditional style of work influenced by Seago. Many include figures, especially the North Norfolk cottage scenes with fowl or grazing cattle under wide open skies, and his love of the countryside is evident to see.
Martin Walton and his partner Nancy Legg were passionate about the environment long before the topic was a mainstream consideration. They helped form the Ludham Society which campaigned to save and improve the local environment and preserve the history of the village. From his earliest days living in Ludham, Walton used to sketch scenes of the village, including hidden details and features that he came to know very well. Some of these incidental references within his paintings are now cherished as documentary pieces because they witness how things were before the demolition of several historic buildings and some significant changes made to the infrastructure of the village and the wider area.
Estimated prices range from just £35 to £300, for single works to small groups of unframed examples, with a particularly poignant view of St. Benet's Abbey near Ludham estimated at £100 - 200.
Part 2 of the studio collection, to be sold on Thursday 8th October, will comprise Walton’s abstract works. They reflect the dramatic shift in his style and expression which at first glance is a disassociated contrast to his earlier work. They have a dynamic energy from being painted in enthusiastic bursts, using layered and scraped back paint which created a vigorous and rich tactile quality to the surface.
Walton first became interested in abstract art during the 1960’s but admitted to having destroyed most of his earlier experimental works. The collection of approximately 300 lots to be offered for sale by TW Gaze shows his developing style from the middle of the 1990’s through to his death, in oil, acrylic, pastel and collage, ranging in both composition and size, with estimates from around £40 to £500. Most of the works are untitled and only a few are signed, but they all show an exciting explosion of colour and form.
Sale Organiser James Bassam comments: "It is not unusual for an artist to evolve their style of expression during the course of their career, but Walton's distinctive shift in method and technique is extraordinary. It has been a unique pleasure to study such a large and varied studio collection."
Fully illustrated catalogues, plus viewing details will be published very soon.
