The exhibition of new paintings by Matthew Sievers at Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery is titled Bold Marks—and bold they are.
He was encouraged by his father, Gregory Sievers, who is a painter, to find his own voice, a voice with which he now speaks with confidence. Manipulating the qualities of oil paint and the mysteries it has revealed to painters over centuries, he makes paintings that emanate light in the way we see it—detail lost in intense light and circles of lens flare that appear through a camera lens.
Aspen Shadows, oil on panel, 60 x 60”
In Aspen Shadows, the lens flare leads the eye to the painting’s vanishing point beyond the distant dark pines. Paint is applied thinly as in the upper right to suggest mist and builds up to the thick paint of the representation of the sun itself. What we see as soft edges are, looking more closely, geometric juxtapositions of color.
Colors change in our experience of the paintings by his using a variety of implements to apply the paint and to manipulate it once it’s laid down. A passage of color of the same value changes when he roughens a section and it reflects light differently. In Aspen Shadows, tree trunks are revealed by his having scraped away the surface layer of yellow leaves to reveal the darker tones beneath. The process in the wrong hands, however, can be muddy. Sievers finds the blurred edges “give the piece more of a sense of memory.”
Sunlight Glacier, oil on panel, 48 x 84”
His application of paint affects the way we see the painting in different lighting conditions as well. He paints more for the lighting in a home rather than in a gallery. The Old Masters painted “lean to fat,” lean paint having been thinned and fat paint containing more oil. The technique can be seen in Aspen Shadows with the contrast between the misty areas and the bright sun. In the lower lighting conditions of a home, the areas of fat paint will pop out.
Grandpa’s Place, oil on panel, 36 x 48”
When painting landscapes, artists introduce atmosphere to convey depth—the foreground more intense and detailed and the middle ground and distance slowly becoming less detailed with less contrast. In his 4-by-7-foot painting Sunlight Glacier, the storm has past and has “washed the air clean” he explains. There is no “atmosphere.” With the cool mountains and the warm light, “the sun is the victor, a ray of hope,” he adds.
Santa Fe, oil on panel, 48 x 36”
“Light is definitely my main muse,” he explains. “But pushing contrast is my art language. It creates so much emotion to have a peaceful setting rendered with turbulent application. Thick to thin, transparent to opaque, soft to scratchy, flat to textured. Could it be any more fun to create art?”
Bold Marks opens May 26 and continues through June 10. —
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