Artwork copyright Maxine Martell. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Maxine Martell. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Pool Figure, 1987

Maxine Martell
American (born 1937)

Location: Centennial Middle School, Spokane

About the Artwork

Pool Figure is an impressionistic painting by artist Maxine Martell. She uses many different colors and gestural forms to suggest a figure swimming in water. She notes you can see water as a metaphor for life, and that this piece is a portrait of herself “immersed in life.” To create the sense of flowing water, she poured paint directly onto the canvas, allowing the colors to blend and separate spontaneously.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with West Valley School District, Spokane.

About the Artist

Maxine Martell received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fort Wright College in Spokane, Eastern Washington, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1962. She has been an artist-in-residence at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood (NW Washington), Western Washington University, and the Centrum Foundation in Port Townsend (all in Northwestern Washington). She has also served as the curator for the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane and director of the Spokane Arts School (both in Eastern Washington), before moving to Western Washington. She lives and works on Whidbey Island, Northwestern Washington, and keeps a studio in Seattle. The Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner in Spokane exhibited a retrospective of her work in 2010.