Full Time Painter week 4…

This week has been a long one, as in about three weeks long. But, here is my so-called weekly blog post at last! My PhD project was on Contemporary Art and Utopia, and I wrote a whole book on it, and started this blog during it, hence the title of this blog. But today, I am reflecting on the fact that painting full time is, to me, Utopia! I am delving into colors, and paint behavior, adjusting to a new studio space, and to me these problems, and this focus is like heaven, a job I really love, my utopia. Next week maybe I will make a more theoretical blog post, but this week here it is: Simply images of what I have been up to in my studio.

 

“Grapes on Red Cloth” 24×14 cm oil on canvas. I learned so much from this painting. The main lesson is: do not expect painting three grapes on a red cloth to be simple. I wrestled with a shockingly badly behaved palette until finally, toward the end, I got out the palette knife and am now pleased with how it all came together in this little study. It now expresses something of what I was trying to say. I will be painting a few more grapes in the near future to build on what I have learned. Do you need to have this in your your house? Then I think you should have it! click here on my Buy it Link

“Paint on Paint” oil on canvas 12×12 in. You would think that painting paint with the actual paint that you are painting (try to say that 10 times fast) would be easy, but its not! I do love paint, and this little painting pays homage to that. Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow. Would you enjoy having this as your very own? Well, its just about dry and I could easily pop it in the mail to you. Just follow this buy it link

“Think Spring”, 12×12 inch,Oil on Canvas. I was inspired to paint this because I really am thinking of Spring. This beauty will pop up on the median strip near my house amongst hundreds of likewise gorgeous blooms. I know we still have a way to go, but the snow is melted and it won’t be that long. Thank you to the gardeners and planners of Saint-Germain-en-laye, who make this happen, I am here to tell you that the gardens of Versaille could not be more beautiful! It is quite amazing.

“Pomegranate” 24×16 cm oil on canvas. Painting this was harder than I thought, but the colours and crevices made an interesting study.

The Week in Paint by Dr. Matthews

 

 

 

This week again, I did not make the 5 paintings per my weekly goal, but its still good to have the goal, I think. Instead I spent a lot of time resolving problems with a piece due to go into an exhibition in the UK for an International Women’s Day Arts Festival (I will post that here after its done). I am thrilled to be participating in that, and see that piece as crucial to my studio work – organically morphing into a new exciting series – so I won’t complain that it took time away from my weekly painting goals. The latter is meant to serve the former!

This week I did complete two small paintings. The first was simply a hand, where I focussed on choosing the precise details needed to convey this particular hand, while avoiding anything too precise. I love the play between representation and abstraction in this regard, and was recently reminded of it by a very talented rising MFA student, Sarah Shchmidt, you can see her work at Sarah Schmidt Art on Instagram. The second was a painting of the view from the Louvre window. I wanted to capture the vast planes of sky, courtyard and the lit-up pyramids. The courtyard was wet with rain and the people below made captivating little flecks sprinkled about.

I have also been revisiting my “elevator speech,” a short blurb that artist’s are told to always have at the ready, to tell people what their art is about in brief: “I work with the themes of utopian dreaming and the art object. With assemblage, I combine ordinary household objects with Old Master materials and techniques. My daily painting practice produces works that stand alone and simultaneously feed into the assemblage pieces.” For example the piece going into the UK  at the Dame of the Hour Exhibition, which I will post here next week, combines a clock with oil painting and a sound piece. Do you think I could get all that verbalization out in an elevator? Your thoughts dear readers would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Elizabeth R. Matthews

The Week In Paint by Dr. Matthews

Utopia and Contemporary Art

I am now sitting in the Starbucks on Wagram near the Arc de Triomphe, my favorite Starbucks around here, reflecting on my week last week regarding my daily painting goal. In one sense, I fell short, because i dd not produce 5 new paintings. But I was productive. I travelled to La Concha beach in Spain, to preview the area and meet with two gallerists, for my planned art teaching experiment, where I hope to get a group of artists to join me there this June for a week or more. If you wish to be one of those artists, give a shout! My idea is that in the morning, we paint or sketch, and in the afternoon we visit galleries, museums, and do some art networking. The gallerists were warm and welcoming, the beach was beautiful, and the accommodations were perfect. My only complaint was that there is no…

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The Week In Paint by Dr. Matthews

I am now sitting in the Starbucks on Wagram near the Arc de Triomphe, my favorite Starbucks around here, reflecting on my week last week regarding my daily painting goal. In one sense, I fell short, because i dd not produce 5 new paintings. But I was productive. I travelled to La Concha beach in Spain, to preview the area and meet with two gallerists, for my planned art teaching experiment, where I hope to get a group of artists to join me there this June for a week or more. If you wish to be one of those artists, give a shout! My idea is that in the morning, we paint or sketch, and in the afternoon we visit galleries, museums, and do some art networking. The gallerists were warm and welcoming, the beach was beautiful, and the accommodations were perfect. My only complaint was that there is no parking whatsoever. The paintings pictured here are small oils, and available for sale for $100 each. Click on them to see a close up view.

Sincerely, Dr. Elizabeth R. Matthews

Lets give this a try

After nearly two years, during which I defended my dissertation, made my corrections within the three months allotted, attended the conferring ceremony at the Burren College of Art and officially became a Doctor of Philosophy, it is time to resurrect my blog: I will continue to review art in terms of its utopian quality, AND I will now publish my own paintings, sculptures and other projects. I will put out my shingle as a Doctor of Art. Here are some recent painting fresh from my studio, just outside of Paris where I now am living, and a picture from my conferring ceremony where I officially became a Doctor of Philosophy, in Fine Art.

 

18/04/2017 REPRO FREE: President NUI, Galway Dr. Jim Browne with PHD graduate Elizabeth Matthews and President Burren College of Art Mary Hawkes at the 13th conferring ceremony, held in the Minstrels gallery the 16th century Newtown Castle at the heart of the BCA campus, exemplifies the continued success of the Burrenís alternative model of art education . The Irish and international graduates included Elizabeth Matthews, conferred with a PhD for her research on Utopian studies , and six international graduates whose work on display in the BCA gallery addressed the ultimate question, ìwho am I called to beî In her address President of the college Mary Hawkes Greene referred to the unique place based educational model committed to individual student centred education accredited by NUIGalway , and how it effectively embraces the often conflicting forces of the global and the local, the public and the private as well as the collective and the individual. . Photo:Andrew Downes, xposure