Saturday, April 7, 2012

Artist Matthew Woodall's partial-biography

The paintings of Matthew Woodall are scenes with people in them mostly, because of how they tell a story, or how they show a particular time in history, or portraits. Matthew uses  acrylic paints as a medium mostly because of allergies to oil paints and oil paint thinners, but will be going back to oil paints in the near future that are made from the natural oil of the walnut. His work consist of cafe scenes, street scenes, paintings of models, and portraits of people, just to give you an idea of what his work is about.

'Portrait of Pablo Picasso'
       
He also likes to do portraits of people that are famous, whether it is famous artists or famous musicians. He likes to paint scenes that remind him of the 60's and 70's, in which he grew up in as a child in the 60's and as a young adult in the 70's which were times in the past that was all about peace on the home-front, with a sense of freedom, which in a lot of ways, were no where near as complicated as they are today. To have a painting on the wall of ones home with this setting, is a constant reminder of peace and love and how it used to be, and how it can be again, with just a little effort, to at least make it that way in the art collector's home and life.

This is what artist Matthew Woodall wants to establish more of,..showing a time when peace and love was a real possession for people during those times, and as he says, "they can be again, if you want it to be."


'Portrait of Bob Dylan'
Matthew sold 41 paintings  out of 43 that he painted during 3 years, from 2002 to 2005 and all were mostly scenes from the 'hippie days', which by the way , as we know, has been alive and well with some people, who loved that time as much as Matthew did, and continues to show that peaceful love. Some people that are in college today are beginning to see that it was a time of great benefits in so many ways, with much freedom, with even bringing back some of the styles of clothing they wore back then, like the flared jeans they call them now, are making a comeback. They called them bell bottoms back then, with singer-song writers like Eric Clapton, for example singing "Bell Bottom Blues", as a reminder of those times.

'The AWOL Story'
(Baby I know, I believe You)
It really wasn't that long ago in one sense, but in actuality it has been 40 to 50 years ago.Matthew however, paints many more scenes and people, famous or not, in settings that are from other eras as well, with the people's clothing or surroundings giving the era away easily.

'Mrs. Nancy and Rastus'

This is a blog post that Matthew wants to establish as an avenue into his paintings and ideals and virtues of friendliness, and love and peace, among like minded people of all times, past and present. And having witnessed and lived through 'the height of a peaceful and loving time' in history, he tries to convey this in his paintings.

'Untitled' by Matthew Woodall
   

We hope you enjoy seeing the only ones that he has taken photos of, which were only about 7 paintings out of so many that sold in the gallery stores before he could get a photo of them and a list of all the buyers for references. In the coming months and years, he will get photos of all his work and a list of who they were sold to, for some of  the ones he that sold so quickly are the ones that speak so loudly of his abilities as an artist.


'Meditating'
"This painting is just a little painting that was more of a study on peoples expressions, while thinking heavily, or meditating." - Matthew 



'Portrait of Megan' 
"Megan was an artist living here in Auburn back when I was 38 y/o and she was 20 y/o and at the time, I was moving out of an apartment because of allergies to black mold and didn't have a place to stay to keep from getting bronchitis real bad, and so Megan asked me to stay with her in her studio room. It was the most fun,..painting with her and cuttin up..lol. :-) I did a perfect pencil drawing after one that Leonardo Da Vinci did of one of his students, who was very old with a long white beard and a wide brim leather hat. Megan was into beautiful abstracts, like her mother, but also painted people like I did, and very similar. A great talent that settled down and had two children and never pursued art again..that I know of." - Matthew
                         
"Pain n Anxiety"

"I only painted this one because I have severe back pain from 2 broken Lumbar Vertebra (bone) and 4 crushed disk, that are made of Cartilage that acts as a cushion between the bones. It has a little bit of fluid inside the disk for added comfort, and four of mine don't have that liquid inside of them, because of being squashed out, and leaving the disks' crushed.. And when I'm out of pain medicine, I look and feel like this, except a thousand times worse. And what I take, is non -narcotic and non-addictive, It is just highly needed to get rid of the pain. As we get older these things happen if we're not careful. I have been diagnosed by one orthopedist as having bone degenerating disease, and by another as having disk degenerating disease, and by another as having Osteoporosis, which basically is the same thing as bone degenerating disease. About 2 months ago, at the E.R. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia,  which she said was a cartilage disease in my shoulder joints, just like disk degenerating disease is, because disk between your Vertebra is made of cartilage. So, I guess I'll be one of those old men that have severe pain the older they get. I honestly don't see how it can get anymore severe than what it is. and I'm only 54 years old...not 74, or 84."  - Matthew  
                   
"Girl with the Straw Hat"


"I have five sisters, and during the early 70's, it was a very popular thing for a teen girl to wear a hat like this. But most of the girls that did, had really long hair.All my sisters did have long hair, although some didn't as seen here. Nevertheless it was what many of them wore,..right at the same time that the mini-skirt's with go-go boots, and halter tops with hip-hugger bell-bottom jeans and sandals became very popular." - Matthew