Local Artist's Colourful Kickstarter Campaign

Over the past few months I've been struck by the tweets of an artist I'm following on Twitter. His work stands out, it's different to other work I've seen coming out the North East. Out of anywhere, in fact. My attention was grabbed by Matt Forster's innovative colourful cubes and colour contrast work. Then I started to enjoy his landscapes, which I later found out were Uberpaintings (a watercolour painting comprised of successive layers, each one uniform in tone and colour).  

Matt started painting at thirteen, sold his first painting at fifteen and first exhibited solo in 1993. After opening his first studio gallery in Hexham in 1998, he travelled abroad and decided to study for his own unique form of art degree (he's self-taught). He returned to Hexham in 2009, opening M J Forster Studio and Gallery (after owning a gallery in Newcastle for six years). Over this period he became a watercolour purist, before discovering the Uberpainting style in 2008 (the style for which he is best known for nationally). 

Matt with one of his Colour Contrast paintings

When I noticed that Matt was looking for writers to help to promote his second crowdfunding project, I got in touch. I've been through the crowdfunding process (to raise funds for a workplace mental health website) and I know how important it is to get the word out. This aim of this particular project is to raise funds to produce a Colour Contrast Watercolour Book. The book will document Matt's recent colour paintings in a limited edition book (only 100 copies will be produced). This will take pride of place on your coffee table or in your art book collection. Hard backed and hand stitched, the book is guaranteed to be a visual feast consisting of forty colour contrast paintings as well as some stunning illustrations on colour theory. 

There are three stages to the project as a whole - Stage One involves raising the funds to have the paintings photographed by leading fine art photographer John Bodkin. Stage Two sees the book being printed using a special press (Indigo 1,000) to achieve the highest quality colour reproduction. Stage Three is the final design stage where the detail is decided upon and the book is bound. Matt aims to raise £6,000 overall (he has previously raised over £15,000 to fund the printing of his retrospective book which has now almost sold out). 

Matt hit his crowdfunding target of £1,500 after just four days, but there are still some great rewards to be collected if you choose to support the project before July 2nd (he plans to make the book even better quality with the extra funds that have been pledged - find out more about the rewards available on his crowdfunding page here). Starting at just £25 for a 20cm x 30cm original cube painting (signed and unframed) to an original of one of the ten limited edition paintings featured in the book for a £750 pledge, you'll find fantastic rewards for all budgets. Don't miss out on your chance to own a unique and highly collectable piece!  

To watch Matt talking about the project click on the video above 

If you are interested in finding out more about Phase 2 of the project please contact Matt via email (info@mjforster.com) to receive his newsletter. 

To find more about the Kickstarter campaign click here 

To find out more about Matt's work check out his website here 

To follow Matt on Twitter click here