Matthew Lyons
Matthew is a Nottinghamshire-based portrait painter who generally paints in oil on heavily primed plywood boards.
Matthew paints quickly and roughly, wearing out paint brushes, and breaking many too. He loves to paint; he says it is the ‘best and worst’ thing he does. It can be a struggle when the picture isn’t going well.
Matthew approaches every painting as a challenge and an opportunity to develop his technique. He wants to explore what can be done with the paint, the line and the board to make an image that explores the personality of the sitter at all levels. “A painting should work up close and far away” he says, and this can be seen in the thick, textural pictures he produces.
He loves to get to know his sitters and greatly enjoys the experience of meeting people and sharing the experience of painting; often something that is a ‘once in a lifetime’ thing.
His inspiration is Lucian Freud, Paula Rego and Vincent Van Gogh amongst many others, and he is always looking for new artists to learn from.
