In the business spreading an artistic empire

Jun 29 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal

THE Art Works gallery has allowed many of the region's aspiring North East artists to reach a wider public. Christopher Knox caught up with its director Matt Forster, a painter with an entrepreneurial streak.

STROLLING across Byker Bridge to the Ouseburn Valley on a bright summer morning, it’s hard not to be impressed by how much regeneration has taken place over recent years in this part of Newcastle.

Long a neglected area of the city and one that was known for its industrious past rather than its future potential, the Ouseburn is now a crucible of cultural industry, with several galleries and artistic spaces helping to support the city’s reputation as one of the UK’s most distinctive creative centres.

With the Northumbria University City Campus East building still acting as an impressive backdrop since it opened in 2007, it is hard not to feel inspired by the time one reaches The Art Works gallery.

At 9am the gallery, which amply displays director Matt Forster’s output of watercolours, is unusually empty. But its normally relaxed atmosphere is quickly restored as the artist spots a visitor and cries “Fancy a cup of tea?”

Oxford-born Forster, 34, has always been a creative soul, having sketched for most of his life, although he admits that he could not have been called a child prodigy by any stretch of the imagination.

“Like most kids I copied stuff, which was usually album covers or comic characters. I would like to say that I was painting landscapes at the age of six, but that would be lying,” he says.

His bold watercolours are certainly eye-catching and reflect his early attempts at comic strips, with his depictions of quintessentially British locations painted in large swathes of colour, reminiscent of pop art but with the fluidity of traditional landscape watercolours – a style he has termed Überpainting.

Although he had his own watercolour exhibition in Hexham at the age of 17, it wasn’t towards the art world that a young Forster saw his career heading, and it was his love for rugby that persuaded him to study a degree in sports science at Loughborough University in 1994.

This decision was also partly down to the fact that Forster was not 100% confident about his chances of forging a career in painting, something which is a little hard to believe given the confidence he exudes today.

It was all a far cry from the world of easels and watercolours that Matt grew up in. He says: “I used to be a flanker in the back row playing for Tynedale and North of England Colts.

“Initially I didn’t think I had what it took to become a professional painter. Although I knew I could paint, the prospect of trying to break through in an extremely tough market was too daunting at the time.”

However, while Matt could have faced a difficult choice between art and sport later in life, the decision was ultimately made for him. After a series of rugby injuries he returned to the easel, opening the Northumbria Art Gallery in Hexham in 1998, and making £50,000 a year at the age of 23. Despite the gallery welcoming around 50,000 visitors in its first three years, he took the risky decision to travel the world with his wife Nicolette, whom he married in 1999.

He realised he needed to experience sights outside the UK in order to develop his own landscapes and the couple backpacked around America, Canada, Thailand, New Zealand, Mexico and even the Arctic Circle.

“It was an amazing time and really opened my eyes to different people, cultures and scenery,” he says. “It was during this time that my style started to come through and I began to realise that it was becoming its own brand.

“I was confident at this point that I had enough skills to fall back on once I returned to the UK but knew that I needed a break in order to take them to the next level. It could be seen as a risk to some as I was just getting established in the North East, but to me it was a necessity.

“I visited libraries around the world to read up on techniques, colour, shade and tone. I essentially did my own degree of Matt Forster.”