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Professional artist Rob Matthews stands in front of one of his many drawings of relatives, this one of his uncle, Clinton resident Jim Matthews. Matthews is showing his artwork through July 18 at the Small House as part of an exhibit entitled, ‘Family, Friends and Home.’ Inset: Matthews’ drawing of his father, Bob.
Matthews has crafted individual graphite drawings of each of his relatives, pictures that depict each parent, cousin, sibling, aunt, uncle, as well as other friends and family members, holding close to their chest something they hold dear. From seashells to fishing lures, pine cones to basketballs, each picture has a story.
Matthews knows each of those stories but hopes that, just by looking, visitors who see his art might be able to identify with the subjects looking back at them.
“Overall, I really enjoy it,” said Matthews of exhibiting his work, who expressed his excitement with bringing his work to Clinton. “There’s a potential of trying to communicate with people even when they’re not in the room with you.”
The works of Matthews and Clinton resident Pam Langston are being shown at the Small House through July 18 as part of an exhibit entitled, “Family, Friends and Home.”
Although he has numerous local ties — Jim Matthews of Matthews Drugs is his uncle — Matthews actually grew up in Wilson and currently lives with his wife in Philadelphia.
Matthews recently had a large art showing at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City. Four of his portraits are also in the permanent collection at the N.C. Museum of Art. Additionally, Matthews has works in public collections, including those at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, both in Philadelphia, along with the de Young Museum in San Francisco, Calif.
Langston has shown work through the Arts Council before and is a renaissance woman of sorts, with music and theater experiences in her repertoire. However, this is the first Arts Council showing for Matthews, who has displayed his work throughout the region, nation and the globe.
Matthews said nearly every child begins their life drawing, but most stop to follow other pursuits.
“Everyone starts drawing, some kids just stop drawing,” said Matthews, with a laugh. “I’ve always been bad at math and that eliminated a lot of jobs.”
Matthews earned a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He then attained a master of fine arts degree in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University.
In school, Matthews said, he was “really into painting.” But at a point, he became disenchanted with the painting process.
“I just started drawing as a way to not paint,” he remarked. The simplicity and closeness of the drawing medium was what kept Matthews drawing, whether with graphite, silverpoint or ink. “It became as simple as a piece of paper and a pencil. The reason I like it is you get a real fine touch with it. In painting, if you have patience with that, you can get that.”
Matthews had the most patience with drawing, taking a week to a week and a half to craft a new work. With time and more feel for the artform, the same kind of pictures would take a mere six hours.
Matthews drew inspiration from past artists such as the German Renaissance painter Albrecht Durer — “when I first got into drawing, I was looking at a lot of his drawings” — and the French Neoclassical painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres — “the portrait style developed out of Ingres’ drawings.”
“In a time where drawings were really a means to something else,” Matthews remarked, “he made an issue out of beautiful drawings that could stand on their own.”
That is what Matthews has set out to do.
He said he has always been most focused on the subject he was drawing, rather than what he was using to put it on paper.
“I don’t know why it stuck with me,” Matthews says of drawing for a living. “Even when I was painting, I was more interested in the image than the material.”
Many of the works being shown by Matthews at the Small House were part of “Kindred,” his solo exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art last year.
Almost all of the 20 works being shown at the Small House through mid-July depict one of Matthews’ family members (the only exceptions are separate pictures of Richard and Glenda Underwood, lifelong friends of his father).
On a 9-inch by 9-inch piece of paper, within a circle 7-inches in diameter, the person is shown holding something of importance to them. Matthews said he had each person pick three or four items they hold dear and tell him about each. Matthews would then decide which personal item he wished the subject to hold, whether based on the originality, the deeper significance and story behind it or simply the unique look and artistic merit of the item.
“I’ve had all kinds of objects over the years,” Matthews attested. “Sometimes you don’t know (what they will bring), but you know the personality of the person.”
In the portraits, Matthews’ mother Diane is holding a cardinal, a bird she has an affinity for witnessing in key moments of her life. His father Bob is holding a seashell from the beach, where he told his son he feels closer to God. Matthews’ cousin Ashley, in her portrait, is holding a pine cone, a symbol of her native North Carolina. When she moved to Iowa, Matthews explained, she found there were no pine trees.
Matthews said he was excited to bring his work to the Small House and an audience who might identify with the Carolinian subjects staring back at them — and may even know a face or two.
“I really think this is a better venue than I’ve shown in before, rather than a gallery,” said Matthews. “It’s so rare that I get to do something like this. (In a gallery) it’s definitely a product for sale. It can be kind of clinical. Here, it can be a more genuine response. I like that it gets to be in this house, (the works) kind of get to react with everything around them. When I got the work up, I was really excited about it.”
Matthews hopes the Small House allows him to leave a mark in Clinton, both in the house and in the minds of those who visit the exhibition.
“From one gallery in one city to another in another city, there’s a predictability about it,” he reflected. “When you take that work down and put someone else’s up, it’s just the widget for that month. They’re never going to know you were there.”
Matthews is at the Small House until July 18. For more information, contact 596-2533.
To see Rob Matthews’ work, visit www.matthewstheyounger.com.
Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 121, or by e-mail at sicrime@myclintonnc.com.
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