Highgate Contemporary Art is proud to present an exhibition of paintings by Matthew Phelps.

Matthew Phelps paints potent and highly concentrated images. His entrancement with nature, its moods and atmospheres, be it the broad expansiveness of marsh lands, the reflective qualities of snaking waters beneath huge skies or more isolated places, close to wilderness, is depicted with an imaginative flair which at times approaches abstraction.

After graduating from Aberystwyth University in 1990 (BA Hons Fine Art), Phelps travelled widely in order to extend his knowledge of art. He was granted a scholarship to study in Moscow for a year in 1993, and now lives in Norfolk.

"I have over the past 2 years tried to shake off some of the bad habits - the conventions that I have picked up and allowed to become ingrained into my practice. The overly controlling mark; the need to describe a motif that keeps appearing without justifying itself. I have tried to develop a way of working that recognises the potential of the chance mark. I have found myself drawn into a process of un-painting areas, what remains are stubborn, resistant passages of paint that carry that raw quality of mark that I am looking for..." Matt Phelps