Martha Kennedy was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.  She currently resides in Santa Fe, NM, reveling in the strong sunshine, mountains and desert.  She has attended various schools to study art: Ontario College of Art & Design, University of MN, Minneapolis and Lake Tahoe Community College, but has found that her life's experiences have played an even more important part:  Years on the professional mountain bike race circuit, traveling all over the US and Canada, training hard, meeting people - travels to Central & South America - more years as a massage therapist. These experiences coupled with the technical learning in classrooms, add up to how Kennedy paints now as a professional artist.

Kennedy works primarily in oil pastel, with some oil paints thrown in when she needs a change.  She works directly on fine printmaking papers, drawing with the oil pastel crayons, reworking with brushes, fingers, whatever she can find to blend and texture the vivid pigments into her distinctive landscapes and still lives.

Talking about her work, Kennedy says, " I use vivid, mouth-watering colour to create bold compositions in oil pastel.  The shapes of trees and mountains, the shadows they cast, the sensuous hues of fruits and vegetables, the way light plays across their surfaces - each element adds its own character and energy.

As I wander through the produce section of the local grocery store, or on my daily walks, colours and shapes catch my eye.  A round shiny violet next to a satiny red-orange, hints of yellow and green pushing in, an intense blue hovering over rusty orange, forms you want to hold in your hands and touch.  At home I put a plum with a lime, try them on different plates or bowls. I play with photos, cropping, looking close-up and far away.   Whether it's fruits and bowls or trees and sky, I seek boldness in composition and colour that excites the senses."

Artistas de Santa Fe, located at 228 Old Santa Fe Trail, currently represents Martha Kennedy in Santa Fe, NM.  In Albuquerque, NM she can be found at Art is OK Gallery, and in Tulsa, OK Joseph Gierek Fine Art represents her work.  She is a member of the Santa Fe Society of Artists. Kennedy is in the collections of Lake Tahoe Community College, Northern New Mexico Community College, Belen, NM Maintenance Facility, and numerous private collections in the US and Canada.