[inquisitive piano and gentle brass]
[shimmery music]
[piano music]
[Onewheel motor spinning]
- I'm Kyle Martin.
I'm from Rock Springs, Wisconsin
and I am a plein air landscape painter.
Plein air being French for 'in the open air,'
meaning that I paint landscapes on location.
[upbeat music continues]
We're here in The Chicken Coop Studio,
which is a converted chicken coop
that has become my studio and my gallery
to showcase my artwork.
[cow mooing]
When I was young,
I knew it as a place where we kept calves
and sometimes heifers.
I can remember one year it was Christmas day,
and I was 10 years old and I was here shoveling manure
into the manure spreader, right out the window.
And so, there's some varied memories
between the farming days
and now the painting days.
I've been enjoying art and all things art-related
ever since I can remember.
Hi, Mom!
My father was a hardworking farmer
and my mother worked two full-time jobs.
When I came home and said
that I wanted to go to college for art,
they could have said, "Yeah, try something else."
But they're actually extremely supportive.
So, I went to school
for graphic design and illustration in Madison
and we also had a painting class
and that was my first introduction to painting en plein air.
And after that day, that was it.
I was just hooked.
My work is dedicated to the memory of my father.
Unfortunately, he passed away on a farming accident in 2008.
He was very proud.
And just knowing that he got to enjoy my work
in that way was a very special thing.
Just to know, just to know that.
Welcome back to the channel.
[upbeat music]
Skateboarding and painting
are two big things in my life,
and they're completely opposite,
but they're intertwined, as well.
Skateboarding is just motion and freedom
and a lot of times, you almost get to turn your brain off.
And painting is the flip side of the coin
because it's so intellectual and you're kind of static.
Let's hold our value isolator up.
Who can name that color?
When I'm teaching painting classes
and when I'm, I'm making my YouTube videos,
I'm kind of showing off the different tools that I use.
My Door County workshops will be coming up
at the Peninsula School of Art.
I am gonna take the students out into the forest
and I'm gonna give 'em the red glasses
and we're gonna talk about the contrast of the light
and the way that the light is affecting the foliage.
I have a 20% value at this point.
I came up with this very easy-to-use value palette
that helps my students
mix your colors to a specific value.
Do y'all see where the long grass is?
- As an artist, he sees that
and most of us don't even realize we're seeing that,
but he makes it happen and the painting is beautiful.
- I think my mission as a painter
is really to capture the barns
and the farms around the area.
I love the little piece of red barn paint that hung on.
Probably my favorite thing to paint
would be a barn that is kind of coming down.
You know it used to be something,
and now it's in this state of transition.
When you're chasing the golden hour light,
you're just kind of acting
as something that's in between the landscape
and the finished painting.
And to me, the reason to paint
is to show that energy of that time of day.
It's just-- nothing is better.
But part of it, too, is that when you're in the country,
you just will not be bothered for a couple hours,
and you can just stand there and do your thing.
[drill whirring]
The Fall Art Tour was an event
that happens the third weekend in every October.
People drive around and check out the workspaces
of various artists who are in the area.
- I keep coming back to that one.
- Kyle: It's the longest-running studio tour in the Midwest,
and that's probably my favorite way to show paintings.
When you come down the driveway to the farm,
and then you step into The Chicken Coop...
Hi. - Woman: Hi, there.
- How are you?
...It's a different environment
from where the people came from
and it's just great to be able to share the sort of life.
A lot of times, it'll take people a few minutes,
just being around my work,
to really start to see it or understand it.
Watching them kind of go through that transition
is really an exciting thing.
Thank you for coming.
I'll see you again sometime.
I think we live in a time
when activities like skateboarding
and creating artwork are very valuable things.
I just think if you're a person who ever wanted to paint
or if you're a person who ever wanted to skateboard,
give it a shot.
Just do it.
The first step is just doing it.
You don't have to know anything.
And if you like it, do it again tomorrow.
Whoa.
[upbeat music]
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