Hough is TLCo’s Artist in Residence for May and June

Landings resident Martha Hough is The Landings Company’s Artist in Residence for July and August. Her show, Skidaway Inspirations, can be seen in The Landings Company’s Real Estate Center (One Landings Way North) Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 5 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Nature is Hough’s muse and the subject of most of her paintings and photographs. The exhibition at The Landings Company, Skidaway Inspirations, presents recent works in a variety of media.

Happiest when she is painting landscapes plein aire, Hough has nevertheless accepted her camera as an important friend. Beautiful scenery and interesting subject matter can be captured at a moment’s notice. She returns to her studio, inspired to interpret and redefine her photo images as impressionistic paintings.

“Oils, pastels, and paper collage are particularly appealing because they are so tactile…almost like gardening,” Hough said. “Rich, vibrant color applied with the firmness of a palette knife or the softness of a fingertip, light and shadow, movement, reflection, they all come into play. Block printing tests simplicity and attention to form, while photography offers the opportunity to manipulate the original color photo on the computer with fascinating, often unexpected results.”

Hough’s photographs are mostly botanicals, with the final work emerging as an organic abstraction. Each medium offers its own worthy challenge that sometimes can lead to a pleasing result.

A graduate of Pembroke College, earning a BA from Brown University with a concentration in Art and Classics, Martha was fortunate to design a personal course of study that included all of the very few painting and sculpture courses available at Brown at the time, along with extensive course work at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

The daughter of a highly respected Rhode Island artist, Marjorie Sands Curit, Hough is an active member the Landings Art Association, a former member of the Providence Art Club, and a recipient of several awards for her photography from the Garden Club of America, the South County Garden Club of Rhode Island, and recently the CAW from Merrill Lynch on Skidaway Island.

You can follow Hough on Instagram (marthahough_art), where she occasionally posts her work and inspirations.