February 2015
Matt Palmer
Here is a list of my favorite 10 books that inspire and inform my creative process.
“I grew up watching my father draw the landscape. Every weekend he would head somewhere. While he talked about the light, my sister and I would play games. Exploring old abandoned sheds, looking for precious relics or climbing hills looking for our views. Watching him as a child ingrained in my memory a relationship with the landscape that is now impossible to deny. I am constantly drawn back to its dream-like qualities and emotional resonance. It is this subconscious, silent conversation that I find myself always drawn back into time and time again. In a way it is the only place I feel truly relaxed. On my own, in a kind of meditation of sorts, I find myself wandering from place to place looking for images that remind me of old paintings or childhood memories. I look for paintings, historical reflections that echo both the history of the genre and also how I feel about my childhood, fully immersed in the scenery and dreaming in the presence of it”.
01
I love the darkness and the lighting in Henson’s work. His work is edgy and challenging which I love.
02
The master and also an avid user of the camera obscura. I use photographs of all my subjects as well, which makes Vermeer a very interesting artist for me.
03
Ryden’s taps into the more illustrative aspect of modern art. I love his eyes and his larger than life portraiture. I use details from his work in mine and often look to his work for ideas on composition.
04
The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites by Elizabeth Prettejohn
Classic portraiture and timeless composition is what I look to Rossetti for. Such a rich layered body of work.
05
David Lachappelle. Hotel
Lachappelle is so playful and I love his use of rich colour. Both things I try and incorporate in my own work when it suits.
06
Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum ed. Hamish Bowles
Fashion and art combined. I love the dresses and the imagery of Marie Antoinette. No one ever got their portrait done in anything other than their finest clothes.
07
Temple Of Flora by Robert Thompson
This is inspiration on taking still life and bringing it into portraiture. My idea is that flowers and the goddess image are closely tied and I am always looking for work that I can use in this way.
08
The Mother Goddess in Italian Renaissance Art by Edit Balas
These works tap into the age-old goddess imagery and resonates with people because of this I suspect.
