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.

The Questionnaire

What car do you drive?
A green one.

What's your favourite restaurant?
Cafe Nicoletta.

Who or what makes you laugh?
My own jokes.

What's your favourite book?
East of Eden.

What's your favourite film?
Carlito’s Way.

What was the last album you bought?
Black Ice - AC-DC.

What's your ideal job, other than your current one?
Landscape gardener.

If you had a talking parrot, what's the first thing you'd teach it to say?
Quite right.

What's your greatest fear?
Severe pain.

What's the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
When you get the chance to move up a level, take it.

And the worst?
A warning that most businesses fail within three years.

What's your poison?
Draft beer.

What newspaper do you read, other than The Journal?
The Week.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
Never had one.

How do you keep fit?
Cycling and squash.

What's your most irritating habit?
Believing that I’m always right.

Which historical or fictional character do you most admire?
Vincent Van Gogh.

And which four famous people would you most like to dine with?
The Queen, Bob Dylan, Martin Amis, Lord Nelson.

How would you like to be remembered?
As the greatest landscape painter of all time.