Martha Jane Ritchie is an Artist and Printmaker who lives in Haines Junction, Yukon Territory.

    While attending Emily Carr College of Art, Martha discovered Linocuts and has continued working in the medium for the past 40 years. Martha’s work has always reflected the environment in which she is living at the time.

    Early on she created a series of pieces based on life on her parents’ cattle ranch in Upper Hat Creek, B.C. While living in Ontario her large prints depicted the different areas of Toronto that she liked to visit, such as Kensington Market. In Vancouver her work illustrated the grittier side of life while she lived and worked in the Downtown Eastside.

    In 1994, Martha and her husband Mark moved to the small northern town of Haines Junction. 

Her current work is drawn from the natural environment that surrounds their home on the edge of the wilderness.

Martha's creative process begins with drawing outdoors and expands into an exploration of printmaking techniques on paper and textiles. The finished product is a variety of two dimensional and three dimensional pieces which are often combined to create an immersive installation.

    Situated 160 kilometres west of Whitehorse, Haines Junction is nestled under the Saint Elias Mountain Range and beside Kluane National Park. The community is small (roughly 850 people) and the residents live closely connected to nature and the outdoors.

     The beauty of this environment, vast sky views, massive mountains, plentiful and healthy wildlife populations and the ever changing light and colours are impossible to ignore and create an unending supply of ideas and inspiration for Martha’s prints.