The Red Canvas

I love this artist both personally and professionally. Professionally her work has made my house a home. I get very real pleasure from the works of art that grace my walls — she brings a loving touch to every piece of art she creates. Personally, talking to her — she is a delight in every way. Warm, genuine and civic minded she is a credit to her community of artists and to Apex. She gives of her time and talent to wonderful causes and wherever she has been or wherever her art hangs is made so much better for it. I simply adore her and am so glad that my realtor, 10 years ago, drove me down Salem Street and I looked into her studio window and just went ahhhh!!!

A gallery and studio owned and operated by one artist, Catherine Martin, who both creates and displays her work here as well as uses it to teach students.
This is a working studio. Unlike most galleries exclusively for displaying finished art, this place has the look of an art school. The back room has the requisite paint splatters, a color wheel of sorts on the wall and displays of student art. The front room, currently in the midst of a reorganization showcases the artist’s work. The artist-​owner, Catherine, assured me the canvases on the walls, leaning against the walls, or on the floor, would be displayed more appropriately once she finished rearranging them. In a way, though, the haphazard arrangement really made it seem I was seeing part of the creative process.
The owner and artist was very sweet and took time to explain her inspirations. It was fascinating. Her works, and even those by her students, are in the impressionist style, with the vivid colors reminiscent of that era. There were canvases of all sizes, but the most striking for me was a small scene in the front window that Ms Martin said she painted of the area out behind her gallery. There was something about that picture that made time disappear. Nothing in it suggested it was a modern time or a modern work. It was captivating.