Christopher Mathie
uses mixed media which mainly involves oil paint. He paints very quickly and freely whilst
creating his pieces, this gives them an organic and rough look. He also sprays
water onto the paint as he is painting, this makes the paint run and become
thinner which makes it slightly translucent so it can show the layers below.
Mathie deconstructs images to their most basic form of just
line and organic shapes and then tries to capture the movement and energy of
the scene.
This piece (Ebb and flow of salt water II) is of a beach
scene. There are browns at the bottom
left of the piece that represents the beach, and then towards the right and
upper part of the piece he uses different tones of blue to show the sky and sea
hitting the rocks on the right hand side that are black. There are tones of
white and blue near/on the rocks that are the waves hitting the rocks.
Line has been used throughout the piece. Mathie uses the
direction of line to create a sense of movement in the painting with the sea
sloshing around and hitting the rocks. Mathie has also used tone very well in
this piece. There are a variety of tones of brown in the bottom left corner
that shows where the beach is lightest. Likewise in the sea, tone has been used
to give a sense of waves and movement. Also Mathie uses a strong contrast of
tones on the rocks as they are very dark and the waves that are hitting them
are white. Mathie has also used colour
very well in this painting as the colours are in balance as no colour is overpowering.
This piece is composed well as the hue of the colours are
gradual and soft, also the piece has a big patch of brown at the bottom left
but Mathie has added a lighter shade of brown to the top right in the sky to
balance it out. Mathie has also done the same thing with the white clouds in
the top left, so the waves crashing against the rocks in the bottom right are
of the same shade of white to keep a harmony within the colours. The piece is
broken into thirds horizontally, with the darkest overall third being the
darkest and it generally getting lighter towards the top.
I think Mathie has created this piece to show and emphasis
the movement of the sea hitting rocks which is normally something you wouldn’t
notice as much just from looking at it normally.
I find Mathie`s work very interesting, especially the
abstract marks he creates to form an overall beautiful piece of art work. Also
I find the way he looks at things in a different way he can create a whole new
exciting scene with paint. Finally his work can relate to my general theme as
the original image is lost within the expressive mark making and only the faded
traces remain of it.
