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Matthew Peak
 California artist Matthew Peak creates dreamy worlds where fairies and crescent moons collide. by Bonnie Ganglehoff |
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WHILE HIS PINT-SIZE FRIENDS sat in sandboxes and built castles, 4 year-old Matthew Peak was content to sprawl across a rug in his father's art studio and draw pictures. In many ways it seemed the young Peak was predestined for a career in art. After all his father, Bob 1~eak, was a nationally known illustrator who chalked up more than 1 50 awards from organizations such as New York's Society of Illustrators and art directors' clubs in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. For his many outstanding movie posters he also received a lifetime achievement award from The Hollywood Reporter. It didn't surprise anyone in his family that as he grew older Matthew slipped easily into the role of his father's apprentice, stretching watercolor paper, cleaning palettes, and washing brushes. But as Peak points out, his real art education came about when his father used him as a sounding board to solve visual problems. From an early age he had regular conversations with his father about movieposters for films like The Wiz, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Apocalypse Now. "It all gave me a reservoir of knowledge that I continually access," Peak says from his home in Northern California. "At the time I had no idea what a precious gift my father was bestowing on me nor that art would become my life's work."  Indeed, Peak's days and nights are now devoted to making art. Although he draws, paints, photographs, and sculpts, he is known primarily for his landscape paintings often scenes of California and Hawaii-as well as his highly imaginative Figurative works. But like many California artists, he also accepts commissions from the film industry. In fact, following in his father's footsteps, he has created more than 50 paintings for soundtrack CD covers, including classics like Sunset Boulevard, Citizen Kane, and Vertigo. A painting used for the CD cover of the Rebecca soundtrack was recently accepted into the Society of Illustrators show in New York. But unlike his father (who (lied in 1992), Peak spends the majority of his time these days pursuing a career as an easel painter rather than as a commercial artist. |
 He lives in the foothills of the Sierras, and his studio is located on the lower floor of the home he shares with his wife, Monika, and infant daughter, Autumn. The studio's main painting area looks out on a meadow sprinkled with pine trees. Shafts of soft north light fall across the floor. Peak also keeps an easel set up outside for plein-air work. Peak divides his painting styles into two separate categories which he terms "reaction and creation." Reaction refers to painting on location; creation involves painting in the studio. "Each offers different challenges," Peak explains. "When I am on location plein-air style or working directly from life, I am 'reacting' to inspiration in front of me. Many times this type of inspiration is fleeting, like twilight, when things look totally amazing for about 15 minutes." During these times, Peak says he frantically tries to capture the relationships that unfold during a brief window of magic . Such spontaneous efforts have yielded paintings like BAY AT CHINA CAMP, a waterscape depicting a spot in Marine County. SUNSET AT THE PEACH ORCHARD also portrays a California locale: Auburn. a vintage mining town from the Gold Rush days. FOOT STEPS IN THE SAND and SHELTER ISLAND COVE were both painted on location in Kauai, Hawaii, on Peak's fifth wedding anniversary vacation. The latter became an anniversary present to his wife, he says. When he is creating studio paintings, he is essentially developing something from nothing. Such was the case with CRESCENT OVER THE POND, a scene painted in his studio. The pond is in Peak's back yard. "One night I saw the crescent moon pop over the trees. I did a quick pencil drawing in the moonlight, then went into the studio and started the painting," he recalls. He often spends hours in the studio trying to obtain the relationship that takes just minutes on location. "But on location I don't get to go where my mind takes me in the studio," he explains. Whether Peak is on location or in the studio, nature always plays an integral role in his artwork. |
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