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Allegorical Paintings

Painted during my MA studies at Gray’s, Here is a series of Paintings combining elements from historical paintings, particularly still life and genre scenes such as Dutch “Merry Company” paintings, with imaginary elements and found images of contemporary political figures and animals. The intention or meaning of the resulting image is reliant on the links made by the viewer between the various symbolic elements, so that I have composed and drafted the image but the viewer writes the story using the clues to build the narrative.

Each is created using acrylic, ink and varnish on paper collaged onto canvas.

Each painting is available to purchase, email me matthewgwells@outlook.com with expressions of interest.

  • Land of no milk or honey, 30 x 30cm £100
  • In bad company, 30 x 42cm, £120
  • A few bad apples, 42 x 30cm, £120
  • A merry revolutionary, 30 x 30cm, £100
  • Betrayal of Britannia, 30 x 30 cm, £100
  • Wolf of Westminster, 30 x 30cm, £100
  • Brexit butcher of Britain, 30 x 42cm, £120
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The Hermit

In 2018 I produced a series of drawings and paintings inspired by Patrick Suskind’s famous novel “Perfume”, centering around its protagonist Jean-Baptiste Grenouille; an orphan with a highly developed olfactory sense, who emits no odour of his own.

The largest painting in the series was a 100 x 150cm canvas of Grenouille as a hermit. This finest of pointing was damaged and subsequently destroyed, so all that remains of the IMAGE is a photograph.

The 1/1 NFT of this photograph is available to own in the absence of the physical object.
The hermit is accompanied by an animated gif showing digital destruction of an image and its reappearance, with states of disintegration chosen as images in their own right.

Available to buy on Opensea

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In Focus: Clavie painting from 2007

Burning of The Clavie, 2007

Recently unearthed whilst emptying out my studio, here’s “Burning of the Clavie, Burghead” 2007Oil on canvas, 70 x 50cm
Depicting the traditional Burghead New Years ceremony of “Burning the Clavie” in which a barrel loaded with wooden stakes and tar is set a light and paraded through the village on the 11th January, before being placed atop a local hill where more tar is thrown on, causing fireballs to shoot into the sky. The stakes from the Clavie are said to bring luck for the year ahead.
This painting is signed “WELLS 2007” on the reverse, and was displayed in the 2007 Moray Arts Club exhibition, where it received a commendation.

This painting currently available on eBay HERE

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Portfolio Update

I’ve set up a new portfolio page: https://mattwells.art.blog/portfolio/

The first project I’m uploading is a set of illustrations inspired by the songs on Manic Street Preachers landmark fourth album, “Everything Must Go”.

As a teenager the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers were highly influential on my personal development. As with many teens I was enamoured by their complete package; appearance, musical sound, lyrics, album artwork and design… This was a time when one would physically hold the CD booklet whilst listening to the songs, absorbing the photographs, quotes and additional text, when music was not just filling silence in the background but an entire physical experience.

The works in my “Everything Must Go” series have been initiated in the year of the album’s 25th anniversary, and comprises of a suite of illustrations inspired by the lyrics of each song.

Below are selection of sketchbook images which informed the watercolour illustrations in the project.

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In Focus: “10 Butts After Hirst”

Oil and acrylic on canvas, 15 x 21cm

As can be seen on this site, much of my work has often drawn influence from other artist’s, particularly- for reasons of technique and content- painters, however in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s I developed in interest in Damien Hirst.

Now, I admit to having been a sceptic and somewhat of a Luddite regarding art appreciation, which in many ways reactionary, however I realised that in fact my interactions with Hirst’s work are on exactly the same level as my interaction with many great paintings/ sculptures in that I am viewing the work through a reproduction, either on a page or a screen, it is not the original work but a digital/ ink reproduction of it with which I am familiar.

This acknowledgment compelled me to begin making paintings of the reproductions of contemporary conceptual or installation work by Hirst and Emin, which did not disavow but embraced the source by including lens flare, page numbers/ text, creases etc. But presented very much as a painting, not an attempt to produce a photographic representation by hand.

You can purchase this painting from my eBay store here

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In Focus: “The Conversation”

The Conversation, 84 x 60 cm, £400

This diptych was developed from a double sided drawing made in a science textbook. The absorbency of the textbook paper results in ink bleeding through to be visible on the reverse side, when alcohol based markers are used. These marks would trigger a (frequently related) new image, the bleed from which could affect the original drawing and provoke further mark making.

Sketchbook drawings which inspired “The Conversation”

The two drawings I have here referred to in developing a painting struck me in there capacity to invite a narrative in the viewer, and a dialogue between to the two panels, my initial conception when approaching the painting being a title of “the conversation”, two people in there separate panels, possibly desiring contact but ultimately being alone (despite being together). The nature of drawing on both sides results in the setting being reversed, if both are viewed together we would appreciate this setting as being the same, but viewed from two sides. This simple fact suggested that perhaps both figures are indeed at the same place at the same time but separated by a barrier (wall/fence etc) as suggested by the relatively high horizon line). Two people alone, perhaps thinking they are individuals, noone else is like them, yet just over the wall is their equal. Possibly…

The final framed painting was produced using oil, acrylic, ink paints and varnish onto book pages which had been collaged on to two separate canvases, which are signed on the reverse side.

This painting is available for sale on my eBay store, with bids starting at £350.

Bid here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393650606449

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In Focus: Bacchus after Rubens

A few years ago I began a series of studies after old master paintings of the mythological figure Bacchus. This character has recurred in my work throughout my career, most recently appearing in a number of works produced during my MA fine art studies at Grays School of Art.

Bacchus after Rubens, oil and collage on canvas , 21 x 15cm

The painting above was made around 2017 and produced using oil paint and collage on canvas. The aim being to capture the structure of Ruben’s original composition in broad strokes, concentrating on colour and over all form rather than details.

It is currently available on eBay, where bidding starts at half the price listed on my website. You can visit the listing at the link below:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393639505138

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In Focus: Cleithrophobia

Cleithrophobia, 10x7cm, ink on card, £20

“Cleithrophobia” (10x7cm) is a fear of being trapped. When insurmountable stress and anxiety gathers we can often see no way forward or out of a situation and dwelling on the issues at hand creates self perpetuating concentric circles of suffering.

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In Focus: A Mother Suffers With Her Son no.1

One of a 3 part series combining elements from art historical images of Christ and the Virgin Mary in montages with other layered found elements such as flowers and drapery.

Oil on canvas, 23 x 30.5cm, £100
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in focus

In Focus: You Can’t take it with you

Around 2009 I began experimenting with Photoshop as a means to develop a more experimental approach to composition and colouring, that was not so much reliant on the strictures of reality. The digital montages I produced often served as a model for painting. My aim was not to replicate a smooth photographic surface, but to treat the montage as any other 3D subject to work from.

  • You can’t take it with you (blue)
  • You can’t take it with you (green)

My thematic approach to building these images was based on the still life tradition, particularly memento mori. The two paintings in focus here were based on combining found images of skulls with my own photographs of coins, illustrating the anti-hoarder maxim of “you can’t take your money with you when you die”.

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