Royden Martin was born in Carmel Valley, California on April 22, 1913. He attended local schools on the Monterey Peninsula and then won a prestigious Anne Bremer Scholarship to attend the California School of Fine Arts, today’s San Francisco Art Institute. Later he studied privately with CAA Artist George Seideneck. Martin’s forte was landscapes of the Monterey area in oil, watercolor, and pastel. He is also known for his portraits of ballerinas in oil atop gold leaf. Martin juried into the Carmel Art Association in the late 1930s. At the time he was the only local-born Artist Member. Martin soon earned distinction and prizes in every medium from oil, watercolor, and pastel to charcoal and conté crayon. His specialty subjects were Monterey Peninsula landscapes, nudes, and portraits, including commissions for many prominent figures of his milieu. Royden’s wife, Betty Hackett, was a life-long dancer, performing both vaudeville and ballet. She had studied with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson as well as modern dance pioneers Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, and the “Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance,” Jack Cole. In 1957 Betty and Royden founded Studio Theater & Restaurant on Dolores Street between Ocean Avenue and Seventh. This venture began as live theater, presenting plays and musicals until 1968. Soon after they opened, Betty and Royden put in a dance floor and opened a dance school with its own small stage at the back of the venue. Royden could frequently be seen making the short trip on foot back and forth along Dolores Street between the CAA and the theater, when he wasn’t teaching figure drawing classes. Betty’s school quickly became the chief training ground for future members of the newly formed Monterey Peninsula Civic Ballet Company. Royden suddenly had many opportunities to paint ballerinas. He created these elegant portraits in an entirely new style. In the process he perfected the technique for painting in oil atop gold leaf. Over his art career, Martin exhibited at the California State Fair in 1940 where he took First Prize, as well as with the Society of Western Artists in San Francisco, Stockton Art League, and at galleries across the country. He earned another First Prize in the art pavilion at the Monterey County Fair in 1964. Royden Martin died at Stanford University Hospital on August 25, 1979.