Matthew Schofield drew upon his experiences to give advice to aspiring artists at Queen’s.
On Sept. 26, Matthew Schofield, spoke at Dunning Hall to discuss his artistic journey with students, with a focus on those in Fine Arts. An artist and painter, Schofield has been painting for the past 20 years after graduating with a degree in Fine Arts from both McMaster University and Ontario College of Art and Design.
Specializing in painting photographs that are life size, with a one-to-one ratio, he began this journey using his father’s photographs. Schofield’s ongoing career in the film industry doing digital matte painting has given him foresight into the photographer’s process and how to interpret a cinematographer’s storytelling.
Schofield balances his career in art and film, but they involve skills that often overlap. “Having a stable job [in film] helped me to take risks with my art, and now having a stable gallery, I can take risks with my job,” Schofield said during his lecture.
Painting from photographs leaves Schofield room to interpret the photographer’s intentions and framing, as well as ponder the raw content of the photo itself. Schofield describes photographs as idiosyncratic. He raises questions about what the photographer left out of the shot, why they took the photo, and more. Film and photography provide a clear and distinct language—photographers have a message they’re trying to get across with each frame, he said.
Schofield expresses his art through painting his own, or others’ photographs. “In my own expression, I’m expressing someone else’s vision, and making it my own,” Schofield said during his lecture.
He emphasizes his love of paint’s tactile nature is what encourages him to convert photographs into paintings instead of leaving them as they originally were. Through photographs, he studies the psychology of people, but painting, for him, is a meditative practice.
In an interview with The Journal, Schofield spoke to his love of colour and working with the paint itself, referring to brush strokes as a form of dialogue. “I don’t want to make it look too photo realistic, because why not leave it as a photo then?”
Schofield’s 2022 exhibition was titled Force Majeure, which roughly translates to an act of God, or something you can’t control. Schofield chose the title because these paintings were created during the COVID-19 pandemic which was an uncontrollable period that affected everyone. The exhibit featured paintings of Schofield’s pre-, during-, and post-pandemic life.
The paintings were larger than Schofield’s normal photograph size, a risk that was greatly important to Schofield.
Schofield values the size of his photographs, believing the tiny scale to be unique. However, he wanted to try larger scaling for this exhibit to encourage change and curiosity within his work.
“If you don’t take risks and you start to find your own work boring, others will start to too,” Schofield said in an interview with The Journal.
His work is rooted in contemplation and taking the time to look at spaces that have been previously ignored. His painting of an empty swimming pool evokes introspective emotions, slight eeriness, and profundity in a scene that one may have initially taken for granted.
“I try to find things to paint that haven’t been painted before. There is a fine line in finding something unique, different, and contemplative,” Schofield said in an interview with The Journal.
From 2009 to 2014, Schofield and four other artists toured different galleries and art fairs around the US. As Canadian artists, they wanted to expose themselves to completely different markets. The five artists represented themselves under the name of BLUNT.
After facing rejections, the five artists chose the name, BLUNT, because it stands for Better Luck Next Time. This name captured the attitudes Schofield tried to impress upon the Fine Arts students: expect some failures but never give up. “You do get rejected from things, but you do have to try and try again.”
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