Raised in a rural part of Michigan, Heather Ihn Martin has been creating art ever since she can remember. She attended the Ringling School of Art and Design in 2001, obtaining her BFA in Illustration. While her dreams of being a Disney artist never came to fruition (like almost every other child that saw behind-the-scenes shots from Lion King), she did find herself in the mobile gaming industry for a decade before leaving to pursue fine art.

Never shying from a good challenge, Heather’s work is almost exclusively painted directly from life. She finds it crucial to be immersed in her environment – she works hard to capture the moment through her own eyes. Landscapes, still-life, interiors, architecture, portraits, animals… there’s no subject that she won’t approach with curiosity and excitement.

You’ll often find her lugging a backpack twice her size near her home in Northern California to paint en plein air. When not outdoors, she’s hogging a surprising amount of space indoors to paint still-life in a house shared with her husband, two dogs, two cats, plus the ducks and chickens in the yard.