M J Forster

This is another one for whom I am late to the party. M J Forster is a British artist who is currently based in Northumberland, but has spent a considerable amount of time travelling the world to improve his art through experience. I think this is incredibly brave and I find that dedication to art inspiring.

Matt works predominantly in watercolour - and I'll be honest - I'm not usually drawn to or struck by watercolour. I often find that water colour lacks the vibrancy and contrast that I'm looking for and in the hands of the wrong person I think it can be flat and bland.

None of that applies to what I am about to show you.

First of all Matt is very well established on twitter (130k followers! Wow!):

He has his own gallery - and you can visit it online here

M J is selling his larger works from £850 and upwards and to be honest it's fantastic to see a British artist doing well.

While he has a range of impressive nudes online (which tend to show what I would call an honest view of the female form - not particularly stylised or 'air brushed') I was drawn in by his range of landscapes in what he calls 'Uber Art' - literally a style of art that is slightly over done or over emphasised:

This a style that is modern in the artistic definition. They make me think of the type of continental posters that used decorate the walls of French and German class at school, and also the 1930/1940s home front propaganda images too.

Despite the fact that it is water colour, there is a brilliant (and I mean that in a literal sense) quality to it. They have a very robust 'in your face' style. I think Matt has shown that this style in watercolour can present a hot or cold ambience. I'm also getting a lot of depth and dimensions - different lines intersecting each other, presenting boundaries and layers. Without giving very much detail at all the work is recognisable and utterly convincing. It is economical and familiar at the same time.

I actually want to go on holiday in one of these images. Which makes me think about Andy Warhol and the achievement of making an image both commercially viable and genuinely artistic too. 

 

Moving on from the tremendous Uber Art, I also love this artist's presentation of doors. We touched upon how magical doors can be, and particularly in the work of Vamekh Kokhreidze. Check out these doors:

These doors actually take me (personally) to Malta, which is a place that I love. There is a vibe about them that is evocative of North Africa or the Med, and the sense of disrepair gives a sense of casual laid back cool, rather than poverty or neglect.

Again, I'm loving the contrast between light and dark too. The shadows are excellent and thoroughly convincing. Again, even with the doors we have depth, and temperature too. Cold stone stairs leading upward to warm sunshine, for example.

Matt shows further diversity and range with a number of abstract pieces which are unrestrained and I just don't feel like I can offer any commentary on to be honest. I just struggle with highly abstract concepts like that.

If you visit the artist's own website you can find out more about him personally and his inspiration and purpose - I picked this to share with you here:

  
Simply reading that has given me a better understanding and appreciation for watercolour painting.

I'd definitely recommend that you follow this guy - I think he's very popular for a good reason.