| Facts/Data
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Birth
1954 (Clifton, Texas)
Death
Lived/Active
Texas
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Often Known For
western genre and landscape painting, mural
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Categories of Interest
Western Painters
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born and raised on a central Texas farm near Clifton, Martin Grelle
became a noted painter of western scenes and an elected member of the
Cowboy Artists of America. He has also done murals including one
for Trinity Lutheran Church in Clifton, a town where he has continued
to live.
He studied at McLennan Community College and has taken numerous workshops.
Living
in a rural area, he grew to respect nearby Scandinavian families and
early in his art work, depicted these toiling people. However he
expanded his subject matter to more western subjects when he began
painting and studying with Jim Boren and Mel Warren, western artists
who moved to Clifton. Later he joined these two men as members of
the Cowboy Artists of America.
Grelle is the 2002 and 2005 winner of the Prix de West Award from the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City.
Source:
Peggy and Harold Samuels, Contemporary Western Artists
Southwest Art
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Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe I:
| Born and raised in the foothills surrounding his hometown of Clifton,
Texas, Martin Grelle grew up with a deep desire to capture on canvas
the beauty of his home. Inspired by the flavor of the small town
and its people, Grelle began to paint at an early age, and at eighteen
sought professional criticism from noted Cowboy Artist James Boren.
As a teenager, Grelle grew to respect nearby Scandinavian families and
depicted these toiling people in his early works. However, he
expanded his subject matter to more western subjects when he began
painting and studying with James Boren and Mel Warren, western artists
who moved to his hometown, Clifton. Later, in 1995, he joined
these two men as a member of the Cowboy Artists of America.
Although the majority of his paintings express the serenity surrounding
the town of Clifton, where he and his son Joshua reside, Grelle has
enjoyed traveling throughout much of the United States and also parts
of Europe in search of new vistas to capture with his brushes. He
says, “I have always been drawn to the mountains because of their
grandeur. Whenever I paint people in a mountain or wilderness setting,
I try to convey the larger-than-life effect that the landscape must
have had on those individuals.”
Working in a variety of media, but particularly with oils, Grelle
characteristically paints with a moderate amount of detail, striving to
emphasize color and texture as a means of creating a visual
image. He most enjoys dramatic light and shadow effects, but he
is equally at home painting the effects of rain and fog. He has
in recent years become more and more drawn to doing what he calls
“period” paintings, using historical settings and incidents to develop
visual stories.
Believing that his ability to paint is a precious gift for which he has
a responsibility, Grelle strives continuously to achieve a level of
excellence in his work; “I believe you have to set your sights high to
be successful.” As the 2002 winner of the Prix de West Award from
the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City, it
seems that Grelle knows what he’s talking about.
Sources include:
AskArt.com, Cowboy Artists of American publication, Contemporary Western Artists by Peggy and Harold Samuels |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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