Matt Glushien currently resides in Providence, RI.

" I am a contemporary painter by context, but very traditional in the way I paint. I like to paint and draw everything and anything that is in front of me. That way the answer can always be found by looking at the subject. I am relieved when the subject is chosen, and am ready to start. I don’t have much interest in any part of the process that is not putting the brush to the canvas. For me, the real root is, and will always be the action of using the paint to record or recreate an image and feeling. When I paint outside or from a model, my observation time is limited by the sunset or the model leaving. I don’t mind the light changing or the model moving. This only leads to me depending on the true essence of the subject and how to attain that in other ways. In recent years I’ve painted extensively in Switzerland and Thailand, as well as France. Knowing that my time is limited puts a certain kind of pressure and acuteness on the experience, I seem to be able to tune in better. If it is a very short, as in Paris, I am able to take home with me a sense of the place and not have my own thoughts or emotions effect it. Over time, as I build a relationship to my surroundings, and the new gets old, my feeling begin to override the initial impression. Throughout the years I have practiced acquiring this information as well as the execution of the picture making process. This needs to happen naturally so that I don’t have to think while I paint and can enjoy the process. If the act of painting is not fun for me, then I won’t do it. I believe that a list of influences can do more for the viewers understanding than I can do in writing, so in no particular order: Alice Neel, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Klimt, Schiele, Bonnard, Monet, Manet, Degas, Braque, Diebenkorn, DeKooning, Hartley, Ingres, Mucha, Kandinsky, Ben Shawn, Jacob Lawrence, Pissaro, Vulliard, Japanese woodcuts, Fauves, Art Noveau, Impressionism, and Expressionism."