Ken Martin

Martin recently retired from Monsanto where he was employed as a project manager in a creative group assigned to the marketing division.  He came to Monsanto from Adams Mark Hotels, where he served as corporate director of graphics and signage.  Previous to that, he served as a professor on the faculty at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale where he   taught Advertising Illustration and Graphic Design.

Since retiring, Martin has devoted all his time and energy to painting landscapes of Missouri and Illinois.  Born in Illinois and growing up in the Forties on a small truck farm in the southern part of the state, he learned early to appreciate the serenity of a simpler kind of life.  That appreciation is reflected in the canvases he creates today.

His accomplishments include two murals for the corporate offices of Ziegler Coal in Chicago which depict shafts in the turn of the century coal mine, multiple covers for Outdoor Illinois Magazine which reflect rural life in the Forties and Fifties in Southern Illinois and recently a commission of five paintings for Augusta Missouri's Sesquicentennial Celebration which will portray significant moments in the rich history of Missouri's Wine Country.