Matt Atkinson Art
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Natural earth elements

4/2/2013

4 Comments

 
Picture
From the start, I've worked in traditional oils, mostly by Winsor and Newton, Daniel Smith, and Grumbacher. But this month I've started something new: hand-made oil paints.

I've always incorporated something personal into every painting. For example, I make sure to use the brushes I inherited from my grandmother, and to use a dab of the oil paints she'd left to me when she passed on. For me, that preserves a continuum of heritage in my art.

But my art is also about land and culture, too. I don't want my art to merely me depiction of a landscape. For me, the art represents my own sense of place and experience in the land.

But few people know that I also infuse every painting with some portion of oil paints I've made by hand, using pigments derived from the earth. To do this, I collect mineral and pigment samples from around the world, and developing my own palette from these ground (powdered) pigments.  Regions of origin include Australia, China, Africa, Central America, and throughout North America. One trick I've discovered is to combine a slightly-staining yellow pigment with the adhesive I use to bond linen to birch boards; this gives a soft "glow" undertone to the linen, adding to the luminescence of the painting.
Picture
Every painting is made with equipment passed on from two generations back, and with paints I've created, one-at-a-time, from the natural colors of the earth from throughout the world.

4 Comments
Rick Bostian
9/3/2013 02:29:46 am

Your art is much more subtle in real life - a beautiful website but your work needs to be viewed in person as I did in OKC this weekend. What is the title of the "Pipe" painting not shown here?

Reply
Matt
9/3/2013 12:15:49 pm

I just put up a photo of it tonight. It's "Filling the Sacred Pipe."
Thanks for your comment! Yeah, getting photos to represent the "real life" painting is impossible.

Reply
Dianne Davis
2/24/2017 01:41:25 am

So unique! First saw your photos on Paint Mines. Would love to see your paintings in person. If you have a showing in and around Colorado Springs, please post the date, time and place on Facebook. Love that you use the paint brushes left to you by your Grandmother and that you incorporate local items in your paintings. Beautiful!

Reply
Matt Atkinson
2/24/2017 03:16:37 am

Thank you! I do show my art in Colorado Springs; I'm currently represented by Thunder Mountain Gallery in Old Colorado. They have a wall of my work up there.

Reply



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