Jim Mathews
Shona Collector, African Traveler and Wildlife Artist

We are pleased to introduce a new talent into our artistic family. Shona sculpture collector Jim Mathews etched his way into the heart and the very spirit of Africa's wildlife by capturing poetic moments with attention to the finest detail.

Having traveled extensively and spent a significant amount of time in game areas in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania Jim's African journeys took place in 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2000. The trips generated an indeniable passion in wildlife art and he pursued his new artistic focus through a program in wildlife art at the San Francisco Zoo. Now residing in Sonoma, Jim Mathews was raised in the Los Angeles area but has been in the Bay Area since 1965. He became addicted to Shona sculpture at the Spirits In Stone Gallery which inspired his many journeys to Africa.

Currently, to fulfill his artistic penchant, he works in graphite, acrylic ink and gauche, probably one of the oldest painting techniques. It was used by the Egyptians and was favorite medium for the French artists of the 18th century. Gauche colours are super for painting on a small, intimate scale which is what Jim prefers, the tiny details of an animals fur coat or leathered skin. He captures the precise shadowing and textures that make the animal come alive as if jumping right off the canvas. The beauty of Jim's handiwork and choice of gauche lies in its versatility for portraiture. He exploits and explores to the fullest in creating a single painting with the variety of surfaces both transparent and opaque that only the ancient technique of gauche can offer.

Jim also carefully selects the whitest of high quality paper palettes for using gauche and graphite so that the smallest quantities of colour can be seen clearly and correctly against it. Working the shadows and the contrast of light and dark in the most infinitesimal scale of small hand strokes, Jim captures each animal's sublime true spirit.

To view more of Jim's work, Click Here