A native of Buffalo, NY and residing in Ashe county, NC for over 30 years, Martha Gimlin began painting when she was 12. Martha says, art has been her passion all her life and that she used to come home from school, do her homework, and start painting. Her mother, Betty Herbert worked in a gallery/frame shop and started selling Martha’s paintings when she was 12 years old. “Ten dollars here and fifteen there” she said kept her inspired to continue painting and drawing. She put the money in a savings account which became her college fund.

Taking English as a major at the University of Wisconsin with a creative writing degree she imagined herself becoming a writer. However, in 1971 she and her husband Hal who she met at the university bought a tree farm in Ashe County and began their careers running Omni Farm. Their wholesale business of selling Christmas trees and wreaths and raising Scotch Highland cattle has been a support and inspiration for much of her art. Most of her paintings come from the many gardens and flowers she grows at the farm.

Martha painted in watercolors for 25 years. “You could paint them and sell them the next day” she said. She always wanted her oils to have the same look as the watercolors but now she thinks her oils are much better. She has a love of nature and especially flowers. She takes her own photographs and uses a micro lens on a telephoto to get incredible detail which she captures in her paintings. Her recent works include a series of apples, pears, tomatoes, and even lemons but the most dynamic is her close ups of such flowers as Orchids and Lady Slippers.