Best known as a watercolorist, Martin (1904-1979) grew up moving from one Western frontier town to another. Shortly after his 1926 discharge from the Navy, he moved to Los Angeles. His most decisive early artistic influence was Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, whom he assisted on a mural painted for the garden wall of a movie director's residence in Pacific Palisades. He and several other artists were commissioned by Life magazine to document American activity overseas during World War II. In addition to his local murals, he also completed commissions in the railway station in Tucson, Arizona, the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, the post office in Kellogg, Idaho, the Federal Building in Lamesa, Texas, and the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, D.C. (Robin K. Dunitz, Street Gallery, Guide to over 1000 Los Angeles Murals)
