Meredith Martin Spotlight
Meredith Martin
Written by Nor Osborne, May 2025
Meredith Martin likes to spend her mornings sitting on an old wooden rocking chair in the middle of the woods, rocking back and forth (with her dog) as she reflects on her surroundings. She visualizes the world around her, painting broad, beautiful strokes in her mind.
“I love to sit out there with my dog and just meditate on the world, thinking about just how fortunate I am to live the life I’m living and to have experienced all of the things I have.”
Meredith has spent her entire life creating art in one way or another. Even in her earliest years, she was fascinated by the process of creating, drawing and painting all throughout her childhood. Meredith went on to receive formal training at Otterbein University, studying art and art education. Otterbein provided Meredith with the opportunity to travel, taking her abroad to Mexico, where she studied art and Spanish at the University of the Americas.
“Mexico is such an artistically infused landscape. The Latin culture is just totally infused with art and color, it's everywhere. Being around that was a neat experience and great influence.”
Otterbein gave her an opportunity to explore New Mexico, where she taught art at a boarding school.
“New Mexico exposed me to Western and Native American art styles. Their relationship with wildlife and color has been such a big artistic inspiration for me.”
After graduating, Meredith went on to teach art at the high school level for a few years, before taking a little diversion and getting into college administration work.
“Life is funny, it takes you on so many different paths. After spending some time away from art, I realized that art is really what I was supposed to be doing. I really feel as if that was what I was called to do”
Meredith has honed in on and perfected a wide variety of skills; sculpting, welding, drawing, painting, and framing, and has had these talents showcased through a plethora of galleries throughout the country. Meredith even took up renovating abandoned buildings, bringing an old church, general store, and township hall back to life with her artistic vision and dedication.
Now, Meredith works primarily on pastel paintings, but continues to dabble in experimental art forms such as stick painting.
“Pastel on the end of a 36 inch stick and it’s just pure fun,” Meredith commented. “Stick painting is like dancing. You don’t know what it's going to come out like. You’re just having a good time.”
Inspired by her time in Mexico and New Mexico, a lot of Meredith’s work features the distinctive style of southwestern art, bursting with color and a reinterpretation of light. Pictures of horses, buffaloes, cowgirls, wolves, bears, and brilliant landscapes line the walls of her studio.
Meredith has been able to express her love for horses specifically through her work at The All-American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, the world’s largest horse show. Meredith was among one of the few artists presented with the opportunity to show their art there.
Meredith and her studio, Sunbear Studio, are now a part of The Front Porch Guild in Granville, an art collective she opened with Spencer Pearson and Eric Mize. She continues to teach art classes as well at the Bryn Du Mansion in Granville.
“Art allows people to move beyond the day-to-day reality of our lives. I paint what uplifts me. It gives me, and others, the opportunity to expand our vision of the world,” Meredith says.
“I think art gives us the opportunity to expand our vision of the world. And we begin to see other people's visions so much better when we can create and imagine. You find solace, you find comfort, you find beauty, sanity. You find it all in art.”