Eugene J. Martin's art is best known for his imaginative, complex mixed media collages on paper, his often gently humorous pencil and pen and ink drawings, and his paintings on paper and canvas that may incorporate whimsical allusions to animal, machine and structural imagery among areas of "pure", constructed, biomorphic, or disciplined lyrical abstraction.

After his mother died in 1942 giving birth to Jerry Martin, the two brothers were placed in foster care in Washington, D.C. As a child, Eugene ran away on several occasions, was placed in reform school at six years of age, and eventually spent the remainder of his childhood on a farm in Clarksburg, Maryland, where his foster parents were Franie and Madessa Snowdon.

He briefly attended the Navy for the opportunity to receive an art education, but instead was honorably discharged.

After undergoing physical therapy in Lafayette, Louisiana, he resumed painting and continued creating art until his death there.

[5] The Estate of Eugene James Martin is represented by Galerie Zlotowski in Paris, France.