Blue Rain Gallery, Durango, CO July 16-31
Self-described “modern impressionist” painter Matthew Sievers’s solo show The Memory of Moments, happens July 16 to 31 at Blue Rain Gallery in Durango, Colorado. Twelve landscapes will be on display. “The show definitely builds on my past works,” Sievers says, “as I’m continuing to push more abstraction into my work.”
As an oil painter based in Idaho, Sievers’s love of art blossomed when he was a child studying with his father, artist Gregory Sievers. “I wanted to impress him and paint with him, which is also where most of my formal training came from,” Sievers says. “I was very lucky to get to paint under such an accomplished artist.”
Sievers received formal art training at Brigham Young University-Idaho and Utah State University, where he learned about different mediums and subject matters. He also traveled extensively, but returned to Idaho where he and his father opened a gallery. Today, they have summer studios near each other in Idaho and winter studios in Scottsdale, Arizona, where they continue to push each other and critique each other’s works.
The younger Sievers’s energetic style is all his own. “Light inspires me. As I travel, I am constantly hunting light and how beautiful our world is in all the varying degrees of light,” he explains. “Emotion inspires me to paint—like the emotion you see in a sunset or when you’re up in the mountains looking at a jagged peak.”
Sievers uses all sorts of tools and techniques, including dynamic brushstrokes and dramatic swipes of the palette knife, to evoke that emotion in his works. He’s also begun stacking transparent layers of oil paint to build depth and to achieve an opaqueness in figures, trees and clouds. Prior to painting, he uses photo-editing software on images to create interesting compositions and often makes small pieces to finalize his ideas.
Today, his paintings are bold and vibrant, with masterful uses of texture. His love of light and shadow are evident and playful, and require the viewers to analyze the shifting visual experience. Whether he’s painting landscapes, storms or cityscapes, Sievers’s paintings continue to push abstraction while conveying natural light and mood.
Sievers will be at an artist’s reception July 18, from 5 to 7 p.m., and will host a demonstration July 19, from 2 to 4 p.m. —Sarah Gleim
Contact Information(970) 232-2033blueraingallery.com
This story appeared in the June/July 2025 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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