Matthew Bates

I grew up in a loving family in Washington, DC, however I had a wanderlust for the world, and I found myself going to college at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Then I was told that to complete my artistic training, I would have to go to Firenze, Italy. That was in 1989, I have been here ever since! Firenze has given me a place to be as an artist and as a man. The artistic waves of energy are strong in this city, and this feeling of artistic power has created my art and my life. Firenze has also shaped my style of painting. In college I painted abstract watercolors, I really had no interest in realist subjects, even though I was learning all of the basics of drawing, painting, and design, I longed to just paint colorful abstracts. Something funny happened to me when I came to Firenze, I started integrating realistic images in Dalì like surrealism. Little by little, and through the addition of such skills as Airbrush and photography, I started to evolve into the painter that I have become. It was in 1995 that I made my first “Florentine” painting. Since then Firenze has become my muse. I love to walk the streets of the historic center with my camera and take hundreds of photos, all in the hope of getting an ultimate inspiration. My paintings are complex in nature and they are often a composite of several photos put together in Photoshop which I then transfer onto the canvas by hand. I like to add space to the left and to the right creating an image that is literally “larger than life”. I call this 4th dimensional painting, because the image is not only the use of space, but also the use of time. I am really glad that I am able to share my paintings as affordable prints. Let me know when you buy a print, I’ll add you to my mailing list. Matthew Bates matteobates@gmail.com – www.mattbates.net