1½ cols.

“Tack Room Light,” 2007, William Matthews, watercolor on paper, 32½ by 18½ inches.

1½ cols.

“Bear Country,” 2007, William Matthews, watercolor on paper, 32 by 17 inches.

2 cols

“Headstrong,” 2007, William Matthews, watercolor on paper, 21½ by 37¼ inches.

2 cols.

“Sage Ridge,” 2007, William Matthews, watercolor on paper, 19 by 32¼ inches.

MUST RUN 8/31

‘WILLIAM MATTHEWS: HOME IN THE WEST’ AT SPANIERMAN GALLERY w/4 cuts

ak/gs set 8/22 #709995

NEW YORK CITY — Spanierman Gallery, LLC, announces the opening on September 6, of “William Matthews: Home in the West,” an exhibition and sale of watercolors capturing facets of Western ranch life that the artist has been studying and chronicling during the course of 25 years.

Although Matthews carries on the tradition of Frederic Remington and Charles Marion Russell, he is best described as an artist identified with the American West, rather than strictly as a Western painter. By contrast with his predecessors who focused on the action-filled moments of drama, heroism and danger in cowboys’ lives, Matthews emphasizes the quiet poetry of ranch experience today; often choosing unusual and close-up viewpoints, he pays attention to the small details that are important in the daily routines of the cowboys, with whom he is closely associated.

The watercolors in this exhibition reveal Matthews’s distinctive spontaneous and reductive approach. Using translucent washes, as well as more vigorous touches of stronger color, he captures nuances of light and atmosphere, while conveying the varied moods of subjects, the stillness of a cow camp in the glowing orange light of dawn; the endlessness of waves of Montana sagebrush crossed by a lone rider; the confidence and wariness of a cowboy, seen in profile, who guides his horse past ominous caves and rocky mounds of “Bear Country”; the steadiness of two cowboys facing each other as they negotiate a “fair deal.”

Matthews has also turned to other aspects of the West in his art, as well as places beyond it scope and outside the purview of the typical western painter. He has portrayed the deserts of the Great Basin of Nevada, and several of his shows have featured paintings drawn from his travels in Ireland, Egypt, Italy Scotland, Spain, China and India. His subjects have included fly-fishing, horseracing, the Navajo and the Amish.

This exhibition reveals the mastery that has come from the combination of the artist’s sustained focus on a subject and his constant desire to see it freshly, varying his techniques and perspectives. All created this year, the watercolors in the exhibition are all created this year and are informed by the artist’s feeling of being home in the West, which has come from his long, close familiarity with his subject matter.

Spanierman Gallery is at 45 East 58th Street. For more information, 212-832-0208 or www.spanierman.com.