Artist Statement

Emmanuel Matt 

 
My work is a celebration of the invisible through the memories, dreams of what we see. Recreating the visual ways we depict, within our traditions, our landscapes. How we leave our mark on the fields, forests, mountains, lakes, seas and oceans. How we mystify nature. How we depend on the earth the water and the air. How our lives evolve in the paradise that is our planet earth. I’m striving for all of that to be there in front of you and to make you think. Looking for and finding the spirits, energies that flow outside of ourselves and through ourselves. 

I am a French/Swiss artist, who was born in Germany, educated in Switzerland and then the UK. I lived in the US for thirty years before settling, finally, in the north-west of Ireland. 
My work is both abstract and figurative. I paint mostly with oil on canvas mixing my own colors using many different earth pigments from many places. My works on paper, use oil paint, inks, pastels, and graphite. I was first trained as a sculptor, adding or taking off elements to a mass, wood, stone, or any material. I keep this aspect of my work and often transfer it to the canvas or sheet of paper. 
The abstraction of music has always interested me, and I apply to my paintings the same processes of composition and improvisation. My practice begins with a summation of feelings and sensations. I make a series of drawings and watercolor studies until the associated shapes and colors surface and reveal themselves. From there, the process progresses using the rhythmic techniques I have developed within each medium. 

Early humans cave paintings to Cezanne, Giorgio Morandi, Joseph Albers and the Amish quilts continue to influence my work. 

My goal is to translate a feeling of connectedness, wherever we live, to those who have gone before us, to acknowledge their resonance in our myths, stories and songs, and their imprints on the interior and exterior landscapes of our lives.