Postcards
Packs of 4 cards of 'Yorkshire Landscapes' are available to purchase from Matthew. [click]
Introduction
Matthew Phinn studied Fine Art at the University of Leeds, after which he moved to Japan, where he worked for seven years as an artist and painting teacher.
Phinn's watercolours are characterised by their large scale and technique drawn from both traditional English landscape and elements of Japanese art such as Sumie ink painting (which he studied in Saitama Prefecture).
Unlike a conventionally Western approach to landscape painting, Japanese proportions and brushes are used and realistic images often lead into areas of stylisation and abstraction. The sizes of the paintings are increasingly large, reaching up to 2 metres in width.
Phinn has regularly exhibited in Japan as well as California, Ireland and Bermuda.
Phinn has been shortlisted for the national Japanese watercolour exhibition every year since 2006, was awarded the International Cultural Foundations prize in Hiroshima in 2006, and the Certificate of Merit in Tokyo in 2008. This year he has been made a permanent member of the Japanese National Watercolour Society.
In 2010, Phinn was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, exhibited at the Mall Galleries, London. He lives and works in London.
In my paintings I have strived to gradually develop a particular style, by merging traditional western watercolour with elements of Japanese ink painting (where I lived and taught painting for over 5 years). Along with English paper and paints, I use Japanese brushes due to the fine tip and capacity to hold in large amounts of paint, making it ideal for large gesture and fine detail within the same stroke. I use a minimal palette and carefully constructed composition to aspire to the Japanese aesthetic ideals of simplicity and beauty, while staying rooted to the watercolour tradition.