
DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709300517

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E14  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Art review

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

LATE JUDGE'S WIT AND ENERGY APPARENT IN HIS PAINTINGS

DURING HIS 21 years on the bench, from 1969 to his retirement in 1990, Norfolk General District Court Chief Judge Frederick E. Martin Jr. displayed great energy, humor and pragmatism.

He was known to ride a bicycle seven miles from home to court, dashing to his judicial throne before anyone could rise ceremoniously. Then he would regale his audience with surprisingly casual and friendly responses to their troubles. Once he settled a matter in a tavern, since the dispute pertained to a player piano on the premises; afterward, the litigants shared a round of beer.

Those who knew the Norfolk native, who died June 4 at age 68, might expect him to have an affinity with theater. But only those closest to him may have glimpsed the painter.

Still, the evidence exists. More than 50 watercolor paintings and drawings made by Martin are on view through next Sunday at The Hermitage Foundation Museum in Norfolk. The popularity of this man, known by friends as Teddy, was seen in the record attendance (375 showed) at the opening reception earlier this month and in the unusually high number of sales (28 pieces as of Thursday), proceeds from which will go entirely toward renovating the Hermitage studios.

Walk into those second-floor galleries and experience an explosion of bold, nearly fauvist color. No shy colorist, Martin allowed himself the freedom to respond emotionally to what was before him - his bench candor transformed into luscious, translucent, lyrical paint strokes.

And, generally, what was before him was a still-life arrangement of objects - often flowers in a vase, but also duck decoys, American flags, birds, a teakettle.

Many of these were painted since his retirement at The Hermitage Museum's studios, where Norfolk artist Edna Sara Lazaron is a longtime leader of the ``Tuesday art group'' - a collection of artists, Martin included, who have found it beneficial to work together.

Martin was an enthusiastic hobbyist who occasionally produced works of great beauty and exuberance. Some of his floral pictures recall the looseness and delicacy of Richmond native Nell Blaine, while others seem born out of the sort of lyrical abstract expressionism practiced by Helen Frankenthaler and others.

Vitrines display open sketchbooks and drawings from trips taken over the years to China, Guatemala and Africa. The artist's widow, Lois Martin, lent her photos of Martin at work sketching scenes, which have been installed next to the sketches he produced.

Some of the snapshots are very amusing, showing Martin surrounded by Guatemalan orphans. In another, a Masai chieftain looks curiously over his shoulder as he strives to capture the wild game before him.

Through the 1990s, there are indications of a growing mastery, notably in the 1995 picture that opens the show. Sadly, we'll never know how far he might have gone. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

HERMITAGE FOUNDATION MUSEUM

``Flowers'' is a 1996 mixed media piece by Frederick E. Martin Jr.,

who died June 4 at age 68.

Graphic

WANT TO GO?

What: ``Observations With Pen and Paint: A Retrospective of

Sketches and Paintings by Fred E. Martin Jr.''

Where: The Hermitage Foundation Museum, 7637 N. Shore Road,

Norfolk

When: Through next Sunday

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m.

Sunday