I’m making some work available as NFTs, initially the series of digital illustrations derived from Alciato’s Emblematum Liber, but I have plans to create several new collections.
NFTs are available on opensea.io here
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
I’m experimenting with eBay as a sales platform and have uploaded these three additions to the site to eBay, where the starting price is 50% off, at £15. As these are my first listings, I am also offering free postage (in the UK).
Press the link below to visit the eBay listings!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393639461781
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393639471981
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393639486012
I read Jerry Saltz’s article on Jasper Johns which ignited an interest in what Johns is currently doing, leading me to The Works on Paper exhibition currently on the Matthew Arks Gallery website, and a return to looking at my Johns books, with particular interest in the formal aspects of image construction and interplay of colour and object, which activated a link in my mind to a in many ways dissimilar artist in Patrick Heron. I always preferred the more “draughtsmanly(?)” Heron works, but enjoyed the visual vibration of the point where his juxtaposed colours meet. So I wanted to learn a bit about how to build high chromatic interesting fields by making drawings after and inspired by Heron’s 60s/70s era. Learning by drawing. Call me “Matt-Rick Heron”.
Three studies for a painting inspired by the Manic Street Preachers song “Elvis Impersonator Blackpool Pier”.
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.
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.
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”.
Matt Wells Art 