Matthew Gwyer is a young up-and-coming artist from the state of Maine. He has been drawing and painting for nearly a decade now, showcasing his art on his website. While many painters played a role in inspiring Gwyer’s work, one stands out in particular – Salvador Dalí.
“I like a lot of his paintings. They’re suspended in time,” says Gwyer.
One of Dalí’s paintings that Matthew Gwyer spoke of fondly was the painting Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening. He expressed great fascination with the detail that Dalí put into the seeds of the pomegranate.
Dalí, a surrealist painter, spoke to Gwyer because he found a sense of calm and relaxation in his work – something he longed for while he was attending the University of Southern Maine. He went on to say that some of Dalí’s paintings were hard to make sense of, but that added to the allure of the artist.
It was in a studio drawing class that Gwyer was first introduced to the work of Dalí, and shortly afterwards he decided to get professional training in art.
While Gwyer had been dabbling in the world of art since 2014, it was at this point that he decided to take his craft seriously and become an experienced painter in his own right.
Gwyer notes that art quickly grew into a passion, and the rest is history. Not only was art a way to decompress from the world around him, but it was also a way to monetize his passion.
The website of Matthew Gwyer serves as a showcase of all his work, and he has already completely sold out his first oil painting series.
While Gywer draws on inspiration from the artists that came before him, all of his work is unique and customers are able to commission custom artwork.
When it comes to inspiration, another artist Gwyer draws from is French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy. Tanguy played a significant role in expanding Gwyer’s interest in different artistic styles.
Gwyer recalls trying to recreate pieces by Tanguy by drawing in colored pencil.
Tanguy’s style is described as hyper-realistic and his work traces back even further than Dalí himself. In fact, important artists and thinkers like Dalí and Mark Rothko admitted their debt to the older artist.
Gwyer also shared with us a fun fact that the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, will be having the largest Salvador Dalí painting in North America on exhibition.
Matthew Gwyer wants to leave his audience with a message: sometimes it’s important to draw from the greats that came before you to find inspiration and create better work. Showing appreciation for the pioneers in your field is often enough to fuel your success.
