Matthew Almy

Illinois, USA, Kings of the Earth, oil, 24 x 18" (61 x 46 cm)

My Inspiration

This is a study for a series called Children of Dust. One of the inspirations for this series is a line from an old hymn that says “Put no confidence in princes, nor on man for help depend; He shall die, to dust returning, and his purposes shall end.”

My Design Strategy

The design came from some very quick sketches out of my head I had done several years ago. Lately I have been trying to be more immediate with nothing set in stone and to let my paintings develop on their own. The model is a writer named Mike who recently moved from New York City and showed up at my studio one day. I knew almost immediately upon meeting him that he was going to represent several characters in my ongoing series. So I set out to do studies of him to get to know not only his physical appearance but also him as a person. The robe he has on is an unfinished costume I am making for another painting that I figured would work with this idea as well.

My Working Process

My process of painting is to go quickly with a lot of paint right from the beginning. My primary aim is the effect of light and the atmosphere, bringing the image as close to the impression of nature as possible. I use large brushes, palette knives, old plastic forks and anything else that comes in handy at the moment. I let the first few layers dry for a few days and then scrape or sand down the painting. I then glaze over everything with a muted grey, scrape that off in areas and start the painting all over again. I will do this as many times as I feel is necessary until the painting is finished. This process of building up, destroying, then building up again seems appropriate to my subject matter and I hope helps tell the story.

Contact Details

Email: matthewlalmy@gmail.com Instagram: @matthewlawrencealmy