Martin Mehkek, oil on glass, made in 1982, signed and dated, framed. Dimensions: 34.5 x 34.5 cm (with frame 39 x 39 cm). Martin Mehkek was born on August 7, 1936 in Novačka vas, three kilometers from Gola, into a poor farming family. He attended elementary school in Gola. When he heard something about the events in Hlebiny around Ivan Generalić and about Ivan Večenaj, he decided to paint. He painted mainly in winter, when there was less work on the farm and in the household. He created rural events with expressive form, sometimes with grotesque facial expressions of the characters (especially with a frequent motif of portraiture). In color, he moved from coloristic noise to a composition of decorative proportions, forms from emphasized to branched (disheveled), from trees with bare branches to smoothed flowers. Portraits are undoubtedly the best part of Mehkek's artistic oeuvre. He is also known for his idyllic winter postcards, for his loggias immersed in soft breezes, for his trees on whose branches lie small scattered clumps, similar to the velvet shoots of plane trees and flowering willows. Martin Mehkek belonged to the first post-war generation (or rather the striking group according to the legendary trio: Virius - Generalić - Mraz) of our self-taught painters in the Podravina basin. He died on July 1, 2014.