As Chagall reputedly said, “Great art picks up where nature ends”. It is important to let the materials determine what happens, not to impose too much and allow chance and intuition to dictate over intention. To be a painter is to be a part of the cultural lineage of humanity, for painting predates the written word and connects us to our ancient past. In this the gesture is paramount and the body integral. The paint becomes expressive, sentient and vulnerable, built up like so many accretions of skin. As with the rings of growing trees the layers of paint are the physical expression of the passing of time, linking the work’s beginning to its end. What Martin leaves is a trace of his artistic and human presence, just as those early painters did deep in the Lascaux caves.Falls the shadow by Sue Hubbard, Infinitive exhibition, Lisson gallery London, 2012