Matthewburleyart

Artist, Portrait Painter, Paintings from photos, Photo realist. www. matthewburley.com.

I love photographs and a love classical painting. When i was sixteen i attempted to paint Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam on my bedroom ceiling.
Around the same time, my father bought me an air brush kit for my birthday and this is when i discovered the American photo realist painters such as Ralph Goings and Chuck Close. From then on, there was no turning back and i wanted to learn how to draw as precisely as i could. I also hoped that one day i would meet one of these amazing painters.
My passion for classical painting and the practice of painting with oils continued throughout my schooling. It wasn’t until my degree that i realised the potential of acrylic paint. Painting in acrylics allows me to paint layers or glazes of paint, without having to wait days for the paint to dry. A technique often attributed to the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck, allowing colours to show through subsequent glazes means the painting will have more luminosity. Glazing enables me to show light or the effects of light in a more realistic way.
Painting a portrait from a photograph allows me to capture not only a beautiful moment in time but also the little nuances and subtle facial expressions that combine with that particular moment. Nothing gives me more pleasure than when delivering a completed painting the client says ‘ Yes, . . you’ve captured them perfectly, . . that’s so him /her. ’
This love of the photographic image has also lead me to create paintings of particular moments in films that i love. There are moments in films that have had an enormous influence over me throughout the years. I feel lucky that i can adorn the walls of my home with painting of these moments.
In 2007, while living in New York, I attended a private view of an exhibition in Chelsea village. It was here that i bumped into Chuck Close. We had a nice little chat. Funny how things work out.