McLeod Stmt-Bio

Matt McLeod

I am a painter, working primarily in oils and acrylics. I love to draw, sculpt with clay and work in mixed media. However, I always come back to painting. Oil painting is my first love.

Art allows me to express visual discoveries. Being an artist has taught me to look twice at things and to see the world differently. I want to show you, the viewer, something I discovered in a scene that you probably passed by. Painting allows me to express myself with color more than any other medium. I try to start with an interesting composition with strong contrasting values, then layer on transparent and opaque passages of saturated color. My goal is to end up with a painting that is more than a landscape, a dog, or a bowl of fruit. I want to use the subject to create an interesting visual pattern of values and colors. My hope is that I will end up with something that moves back and forth between realistic and abstract.

I consider myself an Impressionistic Fauvist. I try to just give an impression of the subject matter, in that the shapes are implied realistically - not photo realistically, but not abstractly either. I give my paintings an abstract quality with bright, Fauvist colors. Fauve is French for wild beast. Fauvism is the post-Impressionist movement, led primarily by Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, in which artists were thought

to paint with vivid color like wild beasts. I have always been strongly influenced by the works of Henri Matisse. I admire the way that Matisse was able to convey how he felt - either about his subjects or just the painting process itself - with vivid color.

I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University in 1987 and have studied with renowned artists including Impressionist Barry Thomas, Realists Kevin Kresse, David Bailin, Don Ginzler and Dominique Simmons, award-winning portrait artist Henry Wingate and award-winning Canadian landscape artist Mike Svob.

In March of 2003, I left a career in advertising to paint full-time and to start 4artsake Art Academy, a business to teach visual arts to children and adults. I teach after-school art lessons to children in grades K through high school. I also teach evening adult classes and offers 3- and 5-day workshops through 4artsake Art Academy.

6609A Hillcrest Ave, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-739-BLUE (2583), www.theceruleangallery.com

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Formal Education: SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY, Dallas, TX

Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, May 1987

Art Education:

July 2005 Professional Oil & Acrylic Mike Svob

Painting Workshop Canmore, AB Canada

January 1988 to Art Instruction Arkansas Arts Center

January 2002 Basic Painting Staff Instructor

Basic Drawing Staff Instructor

Intermediate Drawing David Bailen

Figure Painting Kevin Kresse

Figure Drawing Dominique Simmons

Figure Painting Kevin Kresse

Figure Drawing Don Ginsler

Figure and Portrait Painting Kevin Kresse

Figure Sculpture Kevin Kresse

Fall 1988 Impressionist Painting Barry Thomas, Barry Thomas Studio

Fall 1989 Little Rock, AR

Summer 1998

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

August 2003 to Taught adult painting/drawing classes and children’s art classes

Present 4ARTSAKE ART ACADEMY- Little Rock, AR

July 2006 Taught three-day, adult painting workshop

4ARTSAKE ART ACADEMY- Little Rock, AR

May 2006 Displayed work along with Heather Mainord in a group exhibition