Matthew Green’s realist oil paintings depict the natural world punctuated by pieces of the built environment that intrude and insist on the human presence in the landscape. Green’s works are pristine and forlorn and raise issues of ecology and the age-old struggle of humankind to subdue the natural world. We met Green in 2003, our first year of blogging. On a hot summer First Friday in Old City he was selling his beautifully-rendered paintings of Philadelphia’s abandoned buildings on Second Street. While he doesn’t sell his work on the street anymore his works now sell (successfully) online. Matt’s subject has switched from Philadelphia to the New Jersey Meadowlands, in a project he calls Five Miles from Times Square. The artist canoes the wetlands to take photographs which he later translates into paintings. Like many artists, Matt has a 9-5 day job and comes home after work to his house, his family and his painting. He works on his own pieces from 9 PM – whenever. We talked with Matt on January 20, 2014.
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