Matthew Bird is a watercolor painter based in the Baltimore area whose primary subjects are still life, portraits and figures.
When I first glanced at the page of still life images on his website, I thought he was painting in a deliberattely high-chroma manner. Once I started to look through, I realized he was actually painting quite true to nature, simply choosing colorful subjects, arranging them against generally dark backgrounds, and lighting them effectively.
Something that’s not mentioned often enough when discussing still life painting is the aspect of the art involving the arrangement of the objects. Yes, this is composition, but it’s a stage of composition that is physical and different from similar concerns of compositional placement in landscape.
Bird’s arrangents are often thematic, and usually involve a number of objects related to food, The resulting paintings, with their dark backgrounds, carry echoes of classical Dutch still life, but with a modern color sensibility.
His figures and portraits likewise can have brilliant color, but without pushing past the boundaries of naturalistic chroma.
His website includes a shop for prints, and a page listing workshiops, both recorded and upcoming in person. His blog has some interesting articles, including an extensive and thorughful article about varnishing watercolor, and a list of watercolor societies whose shows accept varnished work, for which there is an accompanying YouTube video.
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