Contributed

Robert Martin of Steubenville is the Steubenville Art Association featured artist for April with works on display in the lobby of Historic Fort Steuben’s visitors center at 120 S. Third St., Steubenville. Watson has six new oil paintings on display, ones which feature the airplanes of the Tuskeegee Airmen, the Thomas Point Lighthouse in Maryland and the backside view of the Portland, Maine, lighthouse. An accomplished oil painter, the 92-year-old Martin has a long history with the SAA. Having met art association founder Emma Hayhurst while he was a young renter above her in an apartment building in Brilliant, Martin was encouraged to do a rough oil sketch of the then-new alloy plant in Brilliant, where he worked. Once introduced to oils, he has never turned back. As a high school student, he was interested in art and studied watercolors and charcoal drawing. In a student exhibit at the Zanesville Museum of Art, he received a watercolor-award. Martin worked for 31 years for Ohio Ferro Alloys Corp.; in Philo, Ohio, in the lab; then afterward in Brilliant as shipping supervisor, shipping steel all over the world. He was drafted and served in the Korean War. After Ferro Alloys, he helped to build the new Weirton Medical Centerl, and because of his experience, was hired as distribution manager there, and then was director of stores until retiring in 1993. A self-taught artist, he was encouraged by well-known local artist Dave Barnhouse to continue his work in oils. In his many years in the art association, Martin has served as a trustee and vice president and has participated in many shows.