Bryony Matthew is a mixed-media visual artist inspired by measured and technical sources such as charts and natural history field guides, and time spent exploring New Zealand.
“Images I gathered exploring NZ by sea and track over many years have built a memory bank of light, colour and form which underpins my work.”
Bryony’s father was a botanist with a love of tramping, and every holiday was an exploration of New Zealand’s flora and fauna, waterways, and DOC maps and guides.
“I have such strong memories of boulder hopping down ravines next to white water, and kicking up the leaf litter for the piwakakwaka who followed us along a bush track, and collecting delicate skeleton leaves and other treasures as I walked.”
“I was introduced to journaling as an 11-year-old while staying for two weeks with my vibrant and creative cousin in Taranaki. After lighting the wood stove, she would sit me at the kitchen table and gave me a big hard-bound book, and a jar of pens and brushes. I remember drawing and writing by candlelight on the firm white pages, as she made delicious smells in the kitchen.”
Summers full of daily art making and watercolour journaling followed Bryony into adulthood, with a new neighbourhood of the Hauraki Gulf, and North, explored while sailing.
The journal remains an important visual outlet.
Self-taught aside from short moments in educational institutes including Unitec, and Hungry Creek Art and Craft school, Bryony Matthew developed a studio practice that has stood her in good stead through a life full of creative work and family.
“Painting is my internal navigation.”
Intuitive mapping and gestural mark-making are explored in transparent and solid layers of paint.
Collage and printmaking make occasional appearances.
Lines of depth or contour are, at times, carved onto surfaces with pencil and charcoal.
See exhibitions for more detail on Bryony’s shows 2007-current.
2000
Travelled solo in South East Asia and China for ten months, Teaching English for three months in China
After eight years in the film industry, some major life changes occurred for me in 2003, and I decided to put more emphasis on my personal creative work. I quit my well paid job as a focus puller, and went to art school at the age of thirty, starting at Hungry Creek Art and Craft School in Puhoi, Auckland, before moving to Unitec, Auckland.
Hungry Creek Art and Craft School taught me to move my creative work out of the private journal, and into the public gaze. Unitec taught me a studio practice, which I still maintain today.
2003
Hungry Creek Art and Craft school, Puhoi, Auckland – Certificate in Art and Craft (Foundation) Level 4
Painting, life drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, jewellery
2003
Stone Lithography course (2 days) – the Quarry Arts Center, Whangarei
2004—2006
Unitec Design degree, (2.5 years of degree completed) – Majoring in painting.
Painting, Art History, print making, drawing etc
2005
Joint exhibition with Amy Herron (photography) – The Depot Artspace, Devonport, Auckland
2007
Solo Painting Exhibition – Letham Gallery, Jervois Road, Auckland – LAND
2010
Sculpture Exhibition – Between the Tides, Collaborative sculpture with Verena Jonker
2011
Letham Gallery exhibition : Solo Painting Show , Herne Bay, Auckland
2011
Waiheke Sculpture on the Gulf- Ethylene Monomer : joint sculpture project with Verena Jonker
2021
Online feature/exhibition of my Paint by (Covid) Numbers Series – Our Health Museum https://www.ourhealthmuseum.org.nz/our-stories/art-imitates-covid-life
2024
States of Carbon group exhibition Bryony Matthew, Emelia Clarke and Shannon Courtenay – Ponsonby Central, Auckland