Mall Galleries will be holding an exhibition of pastel paintings by Matthew Draper at the Baltic Exchange between 4 September and 4 October.  Matthew Draper is the 2019 winner of the Baltic Exchange Award at the Royal Society of Marine Artists’ Annual Exhibition. Paintings will be displayed in the Baltic Bar and around the building. 

Matthew Draper: A View From St Paul’s

This exhibition draws together his winning painting alongside other works from recent series that approach the relationship between water and light. His atmospheric landscapes take us from the Scottish Islands of Skye and Raasay to the busy River Thames and down into the West Country to Falmouth Harbour, a site he has revisited over the course of 25 years.                         

Draper won the Baltic Exchange Award for the pastel painting Nocturne with A Polluted Light, a depiction of Falmouth Harbour at night, the dockyard lights blurred through the fog and cranes, the hull of a ship, floating buoys just discernible in the glow.                                    

“I became interested in how to combine the two types of reflections; whether it be the lit-up dockland, and parts of the town or the remaining evening light, with the movement seen on the surface of the water,” said Matthew Draper. 
 
The artist identifies himself principally as a draughtsman and uses soft pastel as a medium, crushing it in his hands and manipulating the material to build up a thick layered surface using the ball of his thumb or the heel of his hand, and even his forearms.

Known for his atmospheric and beautiful depictions of landscape he is interested in and influenced by the dramatic imagery of 18th and 19th century painting.

Draper is an Edinburgh-based artist who has exhibited widely throughout the UK and whose work can be found in numerous private, corporate and public collections including that of The Bank of Scotland, Huawei, Falmouth Art Gallery, Kelvin Grove Gallery and The City of Edinburgh.

All paintings exhibited are for sale through www.mallgalleries.org.uk/buy-art