Matthew Gonzales always wanted to be an artist. From boyhood on he was always drawing. In high school the art classroom was where you could find him, exploring painting, pottery, and jewelry making, among other subjects in art.
After high school, he attended the Colorado Institute of Art where he earned his degree in Illustration, graduating at the top of his class with the Best Portfolio Award.
After graduation he worked as an illustrator for ten years, doing fashion figure, medical, and figure illustration for advertising. Drawing the human figure has been Matthews’s passion; For the past fifteen years, he has continued to study at life drawing sessions three or more times per week. Matthew has worked in various media including graphite, conte, oils, watercolor and now oil-based clay/bronze.
Matthew now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he pursues a career in fine art bronze figurative sculpture. “Drawing is the beginning of all art. The beauty of the human form awes me. I cannot imagine a more perfect design. The art that I create reminds me how beautiful and wonderful life is. I do not try to create an ideal or copy with mechanical accuracy but to expose the harmonies of form that reveal the body’s perfect design. I try to capture that one fleeting moment when a person is revealed, when one is overwhelmed with the gladness of being. I believe our moments of greatest joy are associated with some form of beauty, harmony, rhythm, truth, and order.”
