Brushstrokes are commonplace in any painting, often serving as a means to compose a cohesively blended image or to add a distinct texture. The style of Matthew Stone takes a brushstroke’s pith and projects it into pieces that divinely underscore the mark. He sculpts the anatomy of figures in intimately tinted sweeps of acrylic paint. Stone forms textured shells that are beautifully fragmented, accented with brushstrokes that appear stray yet enchantingly deliberate.
The characters seen in his digital paintings are laden with expression, imparting a connection to the very essence of being human. Every square inch of Stone’s paintings printed on linen bears a vast depth that reels viewers into a state of musing. The muteness of the linen provides an ideal stage for the colors to unfurl and become unbridled in nature, allowing the boldness to take a leading role. An element of multidimensionality burgeons in each painting, intelligently mastered by the artist. The figures and paint strokes are rendered in their virtual axes and then captured onto a physical medium.
Some of Stone’s work feature the characteristic brush sweeps as the primary subject. On glass, they stand alone brazenly. Each color appear as organic, despite its digitized technique. Stone demonstrates a great understanding of the nature of such brushstrokes and replicates the effect in a technological method. Striations of mated colors form individual streaks that abide as their own singular notion, coinciding among others in an artistically palliative language.
The hues are abundant and choice, establishing a real presence especially when one notices the way the artist incorporates shadow and lighting. Stone achieves an extremely impressive attention to detail, the digitally translated brushstrokes reflect all the fundamental movements of the tiny bristles dragging paint across a surface. One could practically feel the stripes of pigment delineating the many figures and then cleverly slathered elsewhere in the painting.
Matthew Stone’s most recent collection titled “Neophyte,” boasts a gallery of paintings that unearth a relationship between human morphology and the brushstrokes that construct these figures. There exists a peculiar sensitivity and impassioned familiarity to the collection as a whole. Examining and taking in each one elicits a new frame of thought, the motion of the strokes as it relates to the movement of the body. Stone does not falter in delivering works that compel viewers with a fastidious and exquisite tone. The aesthetic of his craft is one that is venerated in the visual art realm.
All images: Matthew Stone
