I work primarily with oil paint on board and the brush mark is everything. It either works or not. There is no compromise or adjustment. The idea is to create a sense of Sprezzatura. 

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“Studied carelessness. An easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them” 

 

The subject is modelled through brush mark and use of colour. Movement and Light striking form is everything. 

 

For me, painting is never a simple imitation of reality, neither is it illustration. Paint is the subject. 

 

Francis Bacon said of Mathew Smith  “He seems to me to be one of the very few English painters to be concerned with painting, that is, with attempting to make idea and technique inseparable. Painting in this sense tends towards a complete interlocking of image and paint, so that the image is the paint and vice versa. Here the brush stroke creates the form and does not merely fill it in. Consequently every movement of the brush on the canvas alters the shapes and implications of the image.That is why real painting is a mysterious and continuous struggle with chance- mysterious because the very substance of the paint, when used in this way, can make such a direct assault on the nervous system; continuous because the medium is so fluid and subtle that every change that is made loses what is already there in the hope of making a fresh gain.” 

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I’m influenced by many painters, and take inspiration from writers and poets - I also studied Environmental Conservation so I have a deep love and interest in the natural landscape and natural history. 

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I graduated from Margaret St. Birmingham with a first class BA Hon's degree in fine art painting.

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I have exhibited in the North West of England and the Midlands with work in private collections.

 

I have worked predominately in the decorative arts as a mural artist and designer working on a wide variety of commercial and domestic projects since 1986. I currently live in Rural Herefordshire.