This Gallery is a buzzing milieu, at odds with its pretty location here in sleepy Port Isaac Dempsey's Studio breaths life, light and passion into the surrounding environment. Established in 1999, the large glass front window of his gallery might showcase one of his controversial, bold daring canvases, as well as his more gentle sea scenes. Martyn’s work belongs to the mainstream of the 21st century contemporary British and European Art. His work is typified by experimentation, a poetic sensibility and an intense intoxicating feeling for colour. Either way you feel entice into his lair to experience this unique artists way of living life.
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When he was 18 years old, Martyn Dempsey drove to Port Isaac in an MG Midget. He bought a cheese roll from a small grocer’s shop on the main street and ate it on the beach, looking back towards the houses and shops that cascade down towards the sea. “I’ll come back and live here one day,” he thought. True to his word, by 2003 he was installed in the very building that the grocer’s once occupied.
The intervening years saw Martyn gain success as a designer then travel Europe on the professional surfing tour. And it was while he was doing the latter that he started making his name as a painter, selling his work in galleries on the competition circuit as far afield as south-west France and Spain, Portugal and the Canaries. When he returned to the UK his profile was further raised when he was taken on by the New Craftsman gallery in St Ives. He realised it was time to choose somewhere to settle, and began looking for a place where he could continue to surf while stamping his mark on an artistic community.….. With many commissions on his books and collectors around the world queuing up for his work, it is clear that Martyn’s influence as an artist spreads much further than the confines of this lovely north Cornish fishing village.
(Words by Alice Westgate, Cornwall Today August issue)
Martyn's stronghold is extending beyond the Cornish border with exhibitions in London and Europe. His avid collectors include corporate businesses, celebrities and the discerning. His art has been features in magazines such as Property Living, Inside Cornwall, Art of England and
Cornwall today and his recent venture into publication has been a great success.
The Studio itself, with an array of brushes, paints, canvases, as well as a bright naturally lit ambiance, is designed to be a working space. You can often see Martyn creating his canvases so please feel free to come in and take a look.