Matti Paints - Subject Ari

I think Ari was one my more pleasant surprises.
We met briefly at one of Libby and Cassie's wild parties. He was an interesting guy, and shortly thereafter he asked to be painted.

I really enjoyed everything about the experience. He was one of those quiet, cool guys you see and instantly know there's more to this guy than you thought.

Pictured: Dark and Mysterious

Turns out I was right!

Ari and I talked about many things during his session from school, to his life growing up in Bulgaria, to his schooling and the girls he was dating. He was a wealth of interesting information, and even though I could tell he was nervous at the beginning, as the painting continued he began to relax more and more. Before long it felt more like I was talking to a friend. Or more likely a bro. I now understand bromance.

 Musically he chose excellent songs. And a good and interesting variety of indie, rock and even a Reggae tribute to Radiohead. Lots of Killers too. We had some good talks about them.

His colour choices of orange and black ended creating an almost tiger like pattern on his face, and especially on his left shoulder which I really liked. It fit really well with his character which was a nice, fun element. I enjoyed contrasting a bit of the blue which I thought contrasted nicely with the orange.
Overall I was extremely pleased with how the picture came out and am really glad to have got the chance to work with him.

Matti Paints - Subject Kevin C

What do you call someone who holds such a special and beautiful place in your heart that you've only met a couple of times?

Some might say confidant, some might say acquaintance... I would say it's somewhere between a lover, a cousin and a pet. I've had the privilege of having a few friends in my life who occupy this very affection position, and one of them is Kevin.

I have known this guy through thick and thin. He's seen me in every stage of my adult life and always been there to lend an ear.

Also it turns out he knows Patrick from way back when. I guess amazing people just run in packs.

 

 

I knew he'd been through a bit of a hard patch lately and as such seeing his playlist wasn't such a surprise. A lot of songs about healing, finding yourself and recovering.

Plus, one song I put in there as a bit of a bittersweet memory. Ten points if you guess which one!

I don't know why I love bittersweet memories so much. I guess they just make life more interesting.

Anyway, as a result I found myself being drawn to a very soft and gentle part of Kevin. I felt like he was wanting something more. He wanted to know that what he was doing was ok. I wanted to show him who he really was. Strong, handsome and powerful. 

Again I'm noticing patterns. I've been associating yellow with power lately. Mainly because the colour dilutes  and blends so easily that to have a solid stripe of yellow is hard, so to block off an entire section of the body in it becomes a challenge. Especially when paired with the green. You need to be very conscious of where the yellow will be, and the fact that the green lines cross over his heart seems to suggest a kind of guarded vulnerability.

Again, I work with a literal tree motif, but this time a strongly realistic approach over a solid grey backing. Why? I'm not really sure. There is something extremely solid and spiritual about a tree. And the fact that it's layered over grey suggests new life.

Am I looking too much into this painting? Probably. But that's what I'm supposed to do, right?

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Matti Paints - Subject Luke

Luke was an interesting surprise for me.

He is someone who I have known for yeas, although we'd never actually got a chance to meet before. We've been great friends and had many talks, but never got to meet face to face.

It's amazing how quickly that changed when I got a paint brush in my hands.

So this is Luke.

If you're wondering why I don't have a proper before shot it's because I forgot to take one. This is turning into a very bad habit of mine, and one I promise I am trying to break.

Anyhow, meeting Luke was a good experience. We have a lot in common and our conversation was instantly enjoyable. Under the layers of awkwardness he's a really interesting person.

When Luke was 17, he was diagnosed with cancer. As a result, he's become a strong vibrant individual and I really wanted to reflect that. The colours he chose (only three I should mention) were very iconic. Blue, red and yellow. It's the most basic colour scheme you could get. But because of his history I really wanted to capture him in a new and unique way. Considering I got the three most basic colours, the fact that the colours never mix makes this one of the more interesting portraits I've done. It's oddly balanced and the colours on his skin reflect an almost super-hero-esque quality. 

Painting Luke was a joy. I really enjoyed getting the opportunity and I hope he enjoyed the final result as the rest of the process.

Matti Paints - Subject Matt Ryan

 This is Matt Ryan. I've had the privilege of knowing him for years. He is one of the best comedic actors North Bay has ever produced and will continue to do amazing things in the future.

BANANA!

When we met he was Judas to my Jesus. Literally. He was quite literally my Judas in a production of Godspell. I don't think it's a dynamic we ever grew out of. We have layers and layers of inside jokes that are so full of hilarity that they've literally become joke onions.

In a way I've seen him grow up. Grow from someone with so much potential, to seeing him now as the man who's realized it and is still growing. So needless to say it was a great time and I couldn't be prouder of the final product.

His music choices were pretty interesting. Varied, and surprisingly he chose a lot of songs that although I had them, I didn't really know them too well. (I added "you spin me" based on an inside joke. Seriously. We're a joke onion.) -EAT POTASSIUM BIPED!

Matt Ryan came to me with very specific wants from the piece. He wanted to be painted from the back in a specific position. However, something really interesting is he said "I want gold and purples... but you choose the colours". Brave, brave man.

The process was easy. Right away we were joking away about baby seals and the good old days in North Bay.  It was a real treat and his skin worked very well with the paints. It was a very easy process. So easy in fact I actually finished before the time had finished.

So the piece is a fair bit dark, but in the end he looks really amazing. It's like what would happen if Two-Face and Poison Ivy had a son.  

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And as a treat: MASSACRE!

Matti Paints - Subject Alan

 

I know what you're thinking and yes. It's true. I've now officially painted an Irish man. In many ways, he's the first major expansion of my project. Sure I've painted lots of people of Irish descent, but everyone so far has been Canadian. (or American, but that's pretty much Canadian)

Me and Alan met when the power was out in my building and I had no idea what to eat for dinner. As a result I found Alan and he invited me over to a) get out of my building, and b) to eat. It was much appreciated and a beautiful friendship has emerged because of this.

We have a great deal in common which made his song choices a surprise. To him. Not to me. He was constantly asking me how I had so many UK songs on my playlist. As a result we ended up with a lot of songs that we both loved. ESPECIALLY Loreen who I am currently obsessed with. But that's besides the point. The point is we both love pop music. It's fun.
Plus Irish guy picks Sinead O'Connor and Cranberries. What a surprise.

One major surprise in his choices were his colour choices. Again, it's a case of the tertiary colours, but this time they were chosen with a very different motivation at hand. Namely, Alan chose colours that were distinctly "Irish". Green, orange and white (for the flag), and purple and pink because they're beautiful colours.

We started this project after a quick pint at the pub. As a result I didn't really realize how opposed his colours were. That, combined with the difficult nature of working with chest and arm hair I knew I had to do something very different from what I normally did. As a result I painted him entirely with a stippled effect. Instead of using the brush in strokes I would fill the paint brush with paint and then dab at him instead of dragging it across him. As a result I ended up with a very distinct pattern that was very much like flowers or a smoky field on his shoulders. I was disappointed that this didn't come out as strongly in the final photograph. There were many bands of colours that simply blended together just based on the nature of the paint. For instance his face is actually layers of pink, orange and yellow that unfortunately blended together. The fact that a lot of the paint was dabbed on also didn't help matters.

That being said, Alan is a lovely and enjoyable person, and I hope he enjoys his final shot. It's quite intense, but I think he looks good.

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Matti Paints - Subject Jeff

I had tried to get Jeff to do this for about a month before we could finally settle down a time to do the painting.

I've been noticing some patterns in my work lately and when Jeff sat down for me to do the painting, I had made a conscious choice to not bring certain elements into Jeff's painting.
Regardless many of the patterns repeated regardless but hey.
Number one was I was very pleased with Jeff's colour palate. Many people lately have been working with the tertiary colours. Lots of purples and greens and oranges. Beautiful colours to be sure but they can be a hassle for someone who is so used to working with blues and reds. That's my comfort zone. So when Jeff chose red, yellow, blue, black and silver I was ecstatic. At last! Someone who gravitates towards primaries! It's a little bit exciting when things like that happen.
Secondly I've been doing a ton of line work. Like a lot. Like too much. I think everyone from Caity onwards has been painted primarily in my line style. I really wanted to break away from that and work with some solids again. Lately the one who has caught my eye as being perhaps one of the strongest has been CHAD whose paint job looks smooth and three dimensional.
While in the end I don't think Jeff ended up being as solid as some of the other ones, I really enjoy the conglomeration between his line work and the solid paint. Also reincorporating spirals into my work I think it going to be my new goal. I do love how they look and they hold a lot of significance for me.

Overall, I really love how Jeff worked out. His skin took to the paint beautifully and he was so relaxed and at ease from the moment the painting started that everything went so smooth. I like to think this was the result of his relaxation and not simply because of my experience. I didn't really know Jeff other than the occaisional friendly gesture but after painting him, I have to say that I really enjoyed him as a person.
One of the biggest joys of this project is getting to meet and see people in a whole new light. It's rather delightful.
So here he is folks! Jeff! 

Matti Paints - Subject Petty Victories

So it all began when I met Colleen at my friends cabaret.
I showed her my art. She loved it. I asked her to be a part of the project.
And then things got interesting.

I was lead up to what can only be described as a very, very large house in Toronto. There I met Zoe and we went over the details on what we were going to shoot.

I've never done a music video before so getting the chance to create one for a song as beautiful as "Concrete and Rosy Cheeks" was an amazing experience. I'm crazy over their music and I feel really humbled and blessed that they let me create this for them.

I really hope you guys enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed making it for them!

This video was an incredible challenge.
I had TWO canvases to paint in less than ten minutes.
The fact that I even managed it is truly a testament to... something.
Maybe it's the fact that I'm crazy, or maybe it's the fact that I'm overly ambitious.
That being said, this paint style is a lot more hectic than my other paintings. I applied it a lot thicker and rougher than before, but the amazing thing is I actually managed to finish their looks.
Considering the time constraint and how little time there was to do it, I really love how it turned out.
I hope you do too!

Matti Paints - Subject Brea and Mandy

I'm pairing up the next two for one very good reason. They were awesome.
That's not the total reason but I swear they go together.
When I went to North Bay, once I finished on Caity, I walked over to visit my friend Cayla at the Kennedy gallery, which is one of the main galleries in North Bay. While there I met Alex who suggested that I do a live showing of the art for people to walk by and see.
So like any other insane artist I said of course.
BIG THANK YOU to Brea and Mandy for doing this for me. It's scary for people, especially beautiful girls, to take their clothes off in public. But they seemed ok with it, so that's the important thing. In a weird way this experience was my first time showing off my art to the entire public. Mind you it was a busy time of day in North Bay so "the public" ended up being about three or four very confused elderly people, but they seemed to enjoy it.
That being said, I've managed to create some of my best art so far!
To start with, we had Brea as our lovely voluntold. She almost willingly let me paint her, which is great progress!
I kid. She was awesome.
We'd never met before but she seemed to enjoy my paintings right off the bat so that was great news! 
Some interesting things happened with Brea. First off she was right at home in top 40 which we all know I tend to listen to. But when I started painting I began with a dark base, literally begining the painting by painting her black. Not my typical standard thing to do but it paid off! I don't think I'd do it again because the black ended up fading everything slightly, but in the end the paintings did great things!

Brea

 Mandy and I have a long history so I was super happy to paint her as my second canvas. While Brea ended up taking on a cat-like theme Mandy ended up with more of a bird-like theme. Her colouring lended more towards bird-dom so I went with it.
In the end we had a great time. Mandy is hilarious and I love her dearly. We had a great time catching up on old times and talking about old teachers. We used to be neighbours... and come to think of it she still has my Firefly and my copy of Dark Cloud 2...
Mandy! I thought we were friends!

I'm very happy with both of these canvases. I think it's a bit funny how my line work tended to dominate my canvases in North Bay which is something I found in Caity, as well as my future canvases you haven't seen yet. I'm not sure if that's a subconscious geographical thing or just my mind being crazy, but either way it's nice to see how they're coming out.
Both of my canvases were gorgeous volunteers and I greatly enjoyed the experience of painting you! 

Matti Paints - Subject Caity

To say my trip to North Bay was a bit of a roller coaster would be a major under exaggeration.
I arrived on the bus to good weather. My sleep was good. Did a lot of writing. It was starting well.
I'd long made it clear that I intended to carry over my project not just to the city of Toronto but since I began I realized it would most likely spill over into every where I go form now on.
So I made an announcement on book-face and ended up with a varied collection of girls who wanted to be a part of it, so I wasted now time and began the next morning.
The adventure began with Caity.

 

 Thanks to Caity I managed to have many shows in North Bay. She served as my loyal stage manager and I eagerly await the day she moves to Toronto so that I know that I'll have someone who knows how to keep me on track and handle the chaos that inevitably comes through in these situations. 

Painting her was a nice experience. There's a lot of love between us and I feel like it came out right from the beginning. She chose a very soft palate which I think elevated the piece in a nice way and complimented who I know her to be. Soft with an edge.

Also noted that our musical tastes are fairly similar.

so apparently this was the colour of her childhood bedroom walls.

 As I began to paint her I began to get a sense of play out of her. I wanted to show her playful attitude sides and really compliment how she is as a person. I put down a base fairly quickly and ended up working with a lot of details. Certain features I really wanted to pop so I added things like the Van Gogh inspired lines, and the pseudo tribal patterns on her arms and face.

This was my first time doing this in somewhere other than my living room. Fortunately the process proved to be just as easy to do elsewhere which was a relief.  The result is the picture ends up being quite different as well, but it worked on a rather exceptional level. I like to think that I got to capture how much Caity has been an impact and a treasure in my life.

Matti Paints - Subjects Libby and Cassie

Libby and Cassie are a pair of friends from North Bay that I had the privilege of growing up with.

Cassie is and always will be the most ridiculously photogenic person I know, and Libby and I hung out almost every day through our high school experience. (Banner! What? it's a newspaper thing... anyway)
The process this time was fairly simple.
Painting two people proves to be a challenge in the most obvious way because of time. There is SO MUCH work to do in such a small amount of time that duets almost always end up being less refined than full body counter parts.
That being said, I was able to do some very interesting things on Libby and Cass. I really love how Libby ended up almost Picasso-esque, especially with the black outline around what looks like fingers along the neck. Cass on the other hand looks much more impish, and the green blotch on her chest reminded me of a quill so I tried to paint her as a creator.

Can you guess who chose what song?

It has to be said that Cass is the first person who had some difficultly finding a selection of songs. I just don't have that much heavy stuff. Always fun. 
So this is my interpretation of my friends  - enjoy!  

Matti Paints - Subject Alex

This is Alex.

We met at the coffee shop and in the short time I've got to know him, I have to say there is something very special about him.
He's very talkative, so one of the things I found so odd about this experience was he was quiet. Silent. Songs would pass and we wouldn't say a word. This was something that I was initially confused by, but the more time passed the more I hoped he was simply absorbing the experience. He's a very hard one to read, but I like to think that he enjoyed the experience. I hope he did. I don't know.

Many of Alex's songs were songs of longing or thankfulness. It was a very heavy playlist so I'm wondering if that played a part in it.
The strange thing was his colour choices were so vibrant and bold that the somberness almost flies in the face of them. It's a case of DESPITE the colours and the actions, the piece somehow still carries a feeling of sadness to it.

Or maybe the feeling is hope. Hope for what exactly I'm not sure, but there is a strange optimism to it as well.

Pictured: Moroseness

Funny how on this piece I'm really focusing on the outcome. The journey itself was a good one, and the end result was fun, but it's just a strange thought to think of how different the outcome was compared to what I was expecting.
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Matti Paints- Subject Lacey

So today started out with a dear friend of mine, Lacey.

Like Kevin, Vera, Chris and Nathan, I also met Lacey at Statlers where we would drink and do songs at the musical theatre open mike night they do every Monday. We met when I sat down with her and Vera and complimented her singing. As time went on we became quite close and after much peer pressure from everyone else who'd done it, she finally agreed to become my canvas.

I'm noticing a theme with colour choices lately. Everyone wants green, purple and orange. I mean really people? What is it with these colour combos that everyone wants to be a part of it? It's crazy!
*end of vent*

That being said, Lacey ended up very interesting. Up until song seven the painting was going one way, and then in the last three it took a wild, radical turn and went somewhere completely different. It was a neat turn that I didn't see coming.

Her song choices were very much "A". Lots of Adele- interesting to note that she was the only person who picked more than one song by the same artist. I found that interesting.
Overall, Lacey was a very easy canvas to work with. 

Matti Paints - Catchup Pt. 2

Shannon and Hayley:

Painting these two was a blast. Learning from working with the sisters, I wanted to make sure that the colour choice was more limited, and the time was also more restrained.

We did many things differently for this one: For one, Shannon and Hayley each picked their songs for the other person, and when the song played, I had to paint the one who the song had been chosen for. Again, we went with ten songs since I figured it would be better to keep them together and it put pressure on me to work faster.

In the end I think I got peacocks. Two beautiful, lovely friendly peacocks. The experience itself was dynamic and exciting. And I have to laugh that there will forever be people who think them to be lesbians simply because I asked them to be painted together.

Kevin:
This is Kevin

I have long admired Kevin's talent and was very excited when I finally got the chance to paint him.

His colour choices were in my extreme comfort zone so I feel like I really got to explore my wild side and attempt to add a whole new level of detail to the pictures. However, I found the music to be a lot more somber than I was expecting which I think reflected a bit in the final product. I ended up giving him angel wings that ended up looking more like marble on his skin than anything else.

Presenting Kevin