[1965] BIOGRAPHY Gordon Matheson lives in Southampton, NY with his wife Claire. He was born in South Carolina and remains a southerner to this day although he has lived in New York since he got out of the army in 1968. He spent 30 years in the textile industry as a fabric designer and creative director. When Gordon was 52, he left textiles behind and became a full time resident of the Hamptons. He soon began studying with Ralph Carpentier and Janet Jennings to prepare himself for a second career as a full time landscape painter. While Gordon had little time to paint while designing high fashion woolen and worsted fabrics, his work kept him immersed in color and composition. Overseas travel afforded the opportunity to spend a hundred weekends studying art in the museums and galleries of Paris, London, Edinburgh, Florence, Venice, Tokyo and Seoul. Of course the museums and galleries of New York City and the Hamptons offered endless inspiration. When he began to paint full time he had actually been studying art for 30 years. Being primarily a self taught painter, he had the luxury of only studying those whose work he admired. Early influences were Van Gogh, and William Merritt Chase both of whom had a very strong sense of place in their work. The recently rediscovered (and newly appreciated by the art world) 19th Century American tonalist and luminist landscape artists strike a deep chord in Matheson and give him much inspiration and enjoyment. Foremost among this group are John F. Kensett, Martin Johnson Heade, George Innes, William Trost Richards, and Thomas Moran. Moran and Chase both lived and worked in East Hampton and Southampton and started the long tradition of artists painting the gorgeous local landscape. As Gordon studied art and painters, a little from each of these artists has rubbed off blending the knowledge collected to create a distinctive and recognizable realistic painterly style of his own. Matheson's landscapes have a definite sense of place as well as well as a sense of season. Like Monet he frequently returns to favorite places to capture them in different seasons, moods and varying weather conditions. Using his digital panoramic camera as a sketch pad, Matheson plots his composition before he starts painting and then spends his painting time creating a harmony of color and atmospheric conditions that match the vibe/karma of the scene before him. When planning the composition of a new location, he keeps his Artistic License nearby (it is signed by Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase and George Innes) and doesn't feel restricted to painting what he sees in front of him. Matheson’s paintings have been described as poetic but he says his Scottish heritage comes without any genetic links to Robert Burns. Rather he claims any poetry come directly from the places he paints and perhaps that is part of what draws him to them. He says he prefers to paint peaceful places and often tries to establish that feeling that comes with meteorological transitions such as the calm before the storm or the 30 golden minutes before sunset on a clear day. Matheson is the organizer and a founding member of Plein Air Peconic, a group of plein air artists that paint and photograph land that has been preserved by the Peconic Land Trust. Their exhibitions call attention to the fine work that the Trust does preserving open space in the East End of New York. He has been a member of the Artist Alliance of East Hampton since 2001 and served as its Secretary 2002-2005 and Vice President 2006-2007. Stuart Lansdale, September, 2008 *********************************************