Kristian Matthews is a plein air oil painter based in Vacaville, CA. Growing up in Livonia, Michigan, Kristian possessed a natural affinity for art from an early age. As a child, he regularly participated in art contests and was awarded for his work. Through his adolescent years, his early art focused on creating humorous comic-style drawings. It wasn’t until his formative years at community college that he began to expand his interests into the fine art world. Kristian holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an emphasis on figure painting. After graduating, he realized that he did not have a live model to paint from; thus began his career in plein air painting. Kristian is drawn to dramatic lighting and finds beauty in his daily environment. In 2022, Kristian was awarded the 1st place prize in Colibri Gallery’s 2nd Annual Morgan Hill Plein Air Paint Out Event.
Kristian's painting style has evolved largely due to his commitment to painting from everyday life, almost exclusively outdoors. While painting outdoors can present unique challenges, it has led him to develop strategies for addressing a range of issues he wouldn’t encounter as a studio painter. One of the biggest difficulties in plein air painting is the rapidly changing light. This challenge has pushed him to focus on capturing the essence of each scene rather than getting lost in excessive detail. Kristian finds it fascinating how much the human mind can fill in on its own, so he often experiments to see how much he can convey with as little as possible—in painting, he believes that less is more.
While many elements of art captivate him, Kristian's main point of interest is color. Early in his journey, he worked hard to replicate the colors he observed in nature. Over time, he realized that perfect reproduction was impossible due to the limitations of pigment. Now, he’s more interested in analyzing and interpreting color in terms of temperature rather than precise hue. Drawn to a broad range of subjects, from tranquil farms to lively cityscapes, Kristian is equally compelled by a vibrant sunset or an old, weathered building. To him, it’s all the same: an arrangement of colored shapes that take on meaning when placed in a particular context.