Matthew Mitchell’s new works comes from his fascination with the geology of the Irish landscape in the Burren, Co Clare where he resides and how we relate to it and what it tells us about our world.

Viewable online here.

The work embodies the landscape through his unique process of incorporating the local clay or soil  as a ‘ground’.  He sources this material from caves, riverbeds and in the large coastline deposits laid down during the last ice age. This organic substance is crushed and processed over time to return it to its original form – a fine powder.   Matthew’s working methods suggest the different time scales.  In one, organic material from the Burren is used and  is allowed to behave naturally on the surface of the painting and in the other, the application of enamel material is more controlled and deliberate.   In each painting the relationship between past and present is shown in the interplay between the natural colours of the clays and soils taken from this Irish landscape, and the shifting reflective light of the inorganic enamel material.

His  preoccupation of the geological past in the landscape and our present experience of the digital age is also played out in his paintings. As Matthew explains; “They explore how the physical geological landscape of the past relates to the unseen satellites, the fibre optic cables passing under our oceans, the information sphere of networks which orders our lives in new ways”  Each painting combines these two time related materials and examines how the physical and visual language of the past has evolved to that of the present.

Matthew Mitchell graduated with a Masters in Fine Art from NCAD in 2017.  Since graduating he has won several awards including the NCAD studio Residency award and The Emerging Irish Artist Residency Award at the Burren College of Art.  His work in the State Collection and The Law Society and his work is collected privately and internationally.