Matthew Greenhalf is a British artist whose work explores a long-standing interest in Landscape and Natural History.  

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He also writes about the same, sometimes examining the uncomfortable reality of contemporary ecological decline, which he views as an endemic and fluxing characteristic of the British landscape.

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The paintings, that can be large in scale and lengthy in their creation, depict both real and imagined places or present a hybrid between the two. They are executed in a style which shifts between representation and abstraction, setting up a visual dialogue between process (or the actuality of painting) and subject.

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Greenhalf is strongly apposed to certain Intensive and Industrialised farming systems, citing adverse impacts on biodiversity, animal welfare and human health. This view has been informed by witnessing, at first hand and often intimately, both the environmental degradation and conversely, the ecological richness, that can emerge from differing land-use practices. This distinction is important because his perception of ‘Landscape’ is seen as more than just the rock, the water or physical topography, but instead as a collection of living components, present in a particular place, at any one time. The intersection or interplay of these ‘non-human’ elements and an environment that has been, to varying degrees, changed by man, is a recurring theme. 

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Influences are found beyond the discipline of painting and include the life and work of Jean Sibelius, the poetry and prose of Ted Hughes and the study of ceramic art, particularly antique porcelain of South-East Asia. He is a supporter of a number of NGO’s foremost of which are CAS International (Comite Anti Stierenvechten), Compassion in World Farming and arc-trust.org

 

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Education:

+ Royal Academy Schools, London (Awarded: The Sir David Murray Landscape Painting Scholarship).

+ Falmouth College of Arts (B.A. Hons, Fine Art). First.

+ University of Gloucestershire: Diploma Painting and Drawing.

+ A very short but influential period was spent at Nicolae Tonitza School of Fine Arts, Bucharest, Romania with subsequent visits to Transylvania.

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Gallery / Representation:

+ Working independently with self-led/curated exhibitions. 

 

Projects (summary):

+ From Mytholmroyd to Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall: Seeking precise localities within the Upper Calder Valley. (Drawing and Painting).

+ Responding to the landscape at Cranborne Chase: Large works commissioned by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil for Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. (Painting).

+ The Unploughed: Tumps, Barrows and Tumuli of Gloucestershire. (Photography and drawing). 

+ In Memoriam of the Cubbington Pear Tree: Veteran Trees of a Cotswold Estate. (Drawing). 

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Site and content owned by Matthew Greenhalf. Created and Managed by James Meigh, Cheltenham.​