Resume:

Born in London and raised in Cornwall Matthew from an early age excelled in drawing and art. At eleven he graduated from pencils and crayons to acrylics. After leaving secondary school with eight ‘O’ levels in mainly science and art/design subjects he went on to pursue OND and HND programs of study in Technical Illustration.

Then after leaving FCA (Falmouth College of Art) he developed an affinity for landscape, which first became apparent in the form of airbrushed moonscapes and fantasy / sci-fi art. Eventually he started painting seascapes, approaching this with the same reverence. From May 1992 to late 2006 he has produced 435 originals as well as various illustration commissions.

Matthew captures the excitement, the movement - the endless power and dynamism of the sea. "The ocean is best photographed when rough” he says “and it's the most exciting part, the initial step of my creative process". An exhaustive photo transparency library has developed which is applied to his paintings in the studio. Here he uses vibrant colour combined with razor sharp brush strokes.

Most of his seascapes are rendered in gouache and painted on board, although for a short time he experimented with pastels combined with colour pencils for added detail. These are rendered on a paper which is never white (but which is either grey, navy, olive or brown) and has a rough texture.

A few however are painted using oil on canvas. The size of his seascape originals are generally A2 but range from (25x45) to (90x98) cm.

All Matthew’s seascapes are of actual places in Cornwall therefore none are fictitious.