Matt Williams

Matt’s work connects the beauty of the natural landscape of Wales with the lived human experience of being Welsh.

As a former farmer, descended from a line of Welsh farmers as far back as they can trace, they feel viscerally connected to the land. Whether through this familial relationship or a synaesthetic tendency, they ‘feel’ colour, form, and atmosphere in a landscape. Like their mentor and friend, the late Meg Stevens RCA, Matt cherishes the wonder in the inconspicuous—the sinuous sweep of grasses in the wind, the enigmatic shadows of winter light on melting snow.

Working predominantly in oil paints, Matt seeks not only to capture the essence of the physical—the geographical and textural landscapes of Wales—but also to invite the viewer to explore the emotional aspects of the nation that lie within and alongside its rugged beauty, including the historical, cultural, and socio-political contexts.

Drawn predominately to the losses of Wales—and the Welsh response to them: the lost cultural heritage, the fight for the survival of the language, the stolen landscapes, and the exploitation of land, resources, and people. Matt is fascinated by how the response to these losses encourages Welsh identity to be defined not by what it is, but by what it is not.

his belief the landscape sings of these losses, and when Matt paints, he hears that song. As an artist, his role is to enable the viewer to form their own personal yet equally profound connection—not only to the landscape itself, but to the experiences embedded within it.

Matt paint with words as well. Through his arts-based research, he has found using poetry alongside a painting elicits a deeper, multi-sensory response in the viewer—a relationship that ensures the sum becomes greater than the parts. It captures attention, evokes emotion, and completes the storytelling.

Being a self-taught artist means Matt’s technique is entirely his own, their approach shaped purely by instinct, intuition, and experience. Although not constrained by the frameworks of formal art training on a technical level, Matt has nonetheless benefited from a deep exploration of the narrative underpinning their work through undertaking a Master’s degree much later in their artistic career.