Matt Flint is a teacher. Whether in his classroom at Central Wyoming Community College, Riverton, in his studio at the base of the Wind River Mountains, or in his paintings. After a career in illustration, its own kind of teaching, he turned to the classroom. In the studio he learns more about his materials and allows the paintings to commune with him. The art on the gallery wall draws the viewer in to the complexity and commonality of the animals they might see in the wild.
Balius & Xanthos, mixed media on panel, 60 x 48"
“My paintings are of animals, plants and landscapes seen through a moment of shifting focus,” he says. “I paint the way I explore the rugged mountains by my house, always pushing to see what is over the next hill, searching for the unexpected.” His paintings blend the traditional with the contemporary, with ideas from the Renaissance to abstract expressionism. He also blends thick oil and acrylic paint on panels and then works in gold or silver leaf, marble dust, liquefied wax and Japanese ink.
Hoot Owl, mixed media on panel, 48 x 36"
“I begin my paintings without a plan,” he explains. “No preliminary sketches are made; every thought is worked out directly on the canvas. Artifacts of the creative process can be seen in the rich textures, worked surfaces, and veiled light qualities created by working and reworking the piece. As one image comes into focus another is fading away, retaining a piece of the previous while hinting at what might come next.”
Chestnut, mixed media on panel, 48 x 48"
The combination of experience, confidence in experimentation and expertise with his media result in portraits of animals that invite communication as their eyes peer out from behind a misty and mysterious veil of paint.
The layers of his painting beneath the finished image contain the pentimenti of his developing and changing ideas. “Like the rhythmic cycles of change seen in the natural world, my painting process is intuitive, elusive and built through layers of creation and destruction,” he explains. “As one image comes into focus another is fading away, retaining a piece of the previous while hinting at what might come next. In this way the work is in flux, shifting back and forth spatially between being up close and yet at a distance. When painting or out wandering in the mountains, I am searching for meaning through connection and solitude.”
The Herald, mixed media on canvas, 72 x 72"His recent paintings will be in the exhibition, Fragments of Arcadia, opening February 25 at Gallery MAR in Park City, Utah. —
Gallery MAR
436 Main Street • Park City, UT 84060
(435) 649-3001 • www.gallerymar.com
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