The March on Banthanti

The March on Banthanti 10.5" x 13.5"

There will be drawings and paintings from Banthanti available at the ELEVATION exhibition. These have a much more illustrative feel than my architectural portraits. They depict a Himalayan culture which has risen to become preeminent in the world and whose primary currency and economy is rubbish. Futility and purpose have lost their distinction. More than that I cannot say. Not just yet……..

Havana and Beyond

Corales y Egido, Cuba 26" x 13"

India, Brazil, Mexico, Nepal, The Carribean. I have been fortunate to be able to travel to dozens of exciting locations in my career as a painter. 

Ive seen so many things, 

experienced such wonders

….but theres not much out there that gets me all tingly like a dangling wire against some crumbly plaster.

This piece is one of several paintings of Cuba that will be in the ELEVATION exhibition in June.

Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Boston 26" x 16"

This is one of a suite of paintings of Boston that will be featured in the Elevation exhibition.
Sometimes I think of painting architecture in terms of music. The time signature might be a structural constant but there's a difference between listening to the click of a metronome and getting into the groove.
The structural orderliness of our built world creates just such a challenge and I am conscious of a desire that my paintings dance with asymmetry and synchopation.
I enjoy the conversation between man and nature here; the trunklike columns marching in line, the organic decorations crisply chiselled and laid just so. No unruly branches or stray fronds. This is Horticulture: the art and science of plant cultivation.

Clines Rug Cleaners, Brooklyn

Clines Rug Cleaners, Brooklyn 24" x 24" watercolour on panel

Buildings can often be read like characters that we know, and often reflect the kinds of people who build and use them over time. Cline's Rug Cleaners, in Brooklyn, NY has it all. A self confident, unpretentious street style, bold, solid build, sturdy muscles. It has a heart on its sleeve kind of openness, a willingness to share honestly. No nonsense. Articulate, but not wordy. Reliable.

The stately elegance of Brooklyn Fire Department Squad No. 1 next door speaks of the pride and civic generosity of the men and women who serve there. I set the two buildings against a firey red sunset both as a nod towards the Fire Department and as a reference to the blistering hot summer skies that seemed so exciting when I first visited New York as a pale Londoner. 
The red sky has come to hold a different significance for me now, as this squad would be the most devastated FDNY unit impacted by the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11th. 12 of its 25 members perished as first responders.

This piece will be for sale in the exhibition along with others from New York.

Major Exhibition of Mat Barber Kennedy paintings in Bristol

We've been talking about this for almost a year, so it is with a great sense of excitement that we are finally in a position to announce the largest collection of Mat's work to be assembled EVER in one place. For one week only, 24th to 29th June 2014, over 60 original paintings will be on show at Purifier House on Bristol's historic waterfront.

So, the gallery is booked, the paintings are all assembled (unfortunately currently in Essex, but we'll get over that!) and we've got a short space of time to get the publicity machine rolling. Perhaps an MBK zeppelin could be of use.

Look out for updates on the blog, social media and in the conventional press.