I was first introduced to Matt Story‘s paintings on a visit to Samuel Owen Gallery. He paints beautiful landscapes, but his water series is what really caught my eye.
To create these paintings, Story first captures dozens of images during a photoshoot in a pool with a model. He then goes through the photos to develop a concept for a painting. This process may involve cropping the image in the photo, determining a the width to height ratio, and carefully choosing references among thousands of photos of bubbles. After blocking the painting and transferring a scaled-up drawing to the canvas, he begins to add colors, tweaking the image and adding layer after layer of colors. The final touch involves a complicated glazing of each bubble to achieve a perfect reflective look.
I find these paintings so bold and graphic. They are both sensual and playful. In person, Matt Story’s paintings are just so energetic, I could stare at them forever.
To see more of Story’s paintings, visit his website. You can also find him on Facebook.