The last (for now?…) studies influenced by songs from the Manic Street Preachers album “Everything Must Go” have been added to the gallery page: https://mattwells.art.blog/narrative-painting/portfolio/
Below are a few of them.
Tag: contemporary art
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From the archive
“We’re all in the same boat, but some of us aren’t getting our feet wet”, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 60cm
This study for a larger painting was painted a couple of Prime Ministers ago, during the reign of David Cameron. An allegory of class disparity.
And the 70 x 100cm painting it spawned, which is difficult to get a photo of due to reflections on the dark paint.
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Landscape Gallery
As part of my practice I sometimes make landscape studies. The reasons vary from documenting the passage through time and space (in my walking drawings), sourcing potential locations and elements for inclusion as setting for later narrative works, to the enjoyment of applying paint to mimic colour combinations, texture and interesting lighting effects.
I have added a gallery here and otherwise stated all works are available. Enquiries can be made to matthewgwells@outlook.com
The first series added consists of 25 studies of the Moray coastline painted in acrylic on card, around A5 size.
Around 2018 I embarked on a project producing drawings and paintings illustrating scenes inspired by Patrick Suskind’s novel “Perfume, the story of a murderer”.
The novel centres around an orphan named Grenouille who has a highly developed olfactory sense, despite possessing no odour of his own. His search for containing fragrance results in depraved activities culminating in mass murder.
All paintings are available unless otherwise stated, email: matthewgwells@outlook.com
The hermit 
A new man 
We’ll make you a new man 3 
We’ll make you a new man 2 
We’ll make you a new man 1
Watercolour and ink on canvas, each £60
The largest painting (below) was damaged and subsequently destroyed, however it is available in digital form as an NFT, both static, in various stages of disintegration or as an animated gif. Available from Opensea.io
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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
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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New Collection on Opensea
New additions to the portfolio page, continuing my project of creating illustrations inspired by the songs from Manic Street Preachers seminal album “Everything Must Go”.
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Zodiac Collection is Live!
Why NFTs?
Although much of my work is produced in physical mediums to create paintings and drawings, I also frequently use digital media to construct images.
The consideration of how to display and disseminate such works; whether to retain them in the digital realm or produce reproductions in the form of some type of print has been at the forefront of my mind. Considering that much of the visual art we consume nowadays is via the means of digital reproduction as opposed to interacting with the physical object it seemed to make sense that these digital works be considered as “the work” and not a stepping stone to a plastic outcome.
For this reason I decided to market the digitally produced work as NFT art pieces. The first major collection offered for sale being the Zodiac collection, illustrations depicting the 12 Western star signs, which are available to purchase through opensea.io at this address: https://opensea.io/collection/zodiacpfps
Matt Wells Art 