Rowen Matthews feels the landscape around him, then looks for its inherent essential rhythms. In this new series, utilising oil pencil, oil stick and oil paint, as his medium, Rowen experiments with marks that express the energy of this essence.“It’s all about the energy, not just in the seeing of things but the hearing touching dancing jumping of things, feeling the rise and fall of the land, hearing it bang and shudder, being softened by its whisper, comforted by the gentleness of calm days and buffeted by the brutality of strong wind, we live with all of this. The cold bites us and the warmth opens our nostrils.

In the work, Storm Creek, for example, we are made giddy by the sudden and passing rise of a stream. These paintings invite us to immerse ourselves.”Rowen Matthews commenced his career as a full time practising artist, subsequent to his sell-out solo show at the New England Regional Art Museum in 2000.Since that time Rowen has enjoyed considerable success in the subsequent years, including several solo shows in NSW, and participating in various group show.

He has been a finalist in numerous significant art prizes over the years, most notably, the Country Energy Art Prize (2008), the John Leslie Art Prize (2010), the Rick Amor Drawing Prize (2010), the Mosman Art Prize (2011), and the NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize (2011, 2013). In 2009 Rowen won the Calleen Art Award, and has been a finalist again, this year.

Rowen is represented in a number of regional gallery collection in addition to private collections throughout Australia, Germany, Norway, the UK and the USA.

Image: © Rowen Matthews, Catherine Asquith Gallery