Biography

For thirty-one years, art has been Matthew Higginbotham's passion. Born in Colorado Springs , CO in 1963, Matthew soon became involved with art making at an early age. At the age of eleven, his mother enrolled him in an art class at the Philbrook Art Institute in Tulsa, OK where he learned pottery design, glazing, and throwing. These evolved years later into a fine art pottery business in Washington State that lasted for four years, from 1991-1995. Galleries such as Sasak in the Seattle Design Center, Seattle's Southwest Collections, and others throughout the state successfully marketed and sold his work. Then in early 1995, a creative transformation occurred when he experimented with oil painting. What he discovered was a new way to communicate his creative vision in the immediacy of painting on canvas that he felt was absent in painting glazes on pottery. The change was profound. In a matter of days, he decided to sell most all of his pottery equipment and devote himself entirely to painting. He has never regretted it.

“It was really a transformational event for me when I started painting. I remember diving into all the art books on painting I could get a hold of and going back to the studio to practice and practice. Then it took off for me. I painted a series of Southwest churches which led to a solo show in 1995 at Metro Mall Gallery in Spokane, WA and a later at Bedford Gallery in Colorado Springs, CO. But it wasn't until I moved to northern New Mexico in late 1995 that I began to mature as a painter.”

“Eventually I found that landscapes are what engage me. There is so much in a landscape like, for instance, so many wonderful opposites- darkness and light, peace and chaos, subtlety and directness, intensity and muteness. All of these parts, to varying degrees, somehow find there way into my paintings. But what is more, t here is often an energy I sense around me. I am, for instance, especially fascinated with poplar trees-their height, the way their leaves move in a wind, their brilliant color changes, and how they are grouped together, sometimes in rows. And it is my feeling of them that I want to put out on the canvas. This is what I try to do in all my work. It is about translating any landscape into how they speak to me. I may paint a very large and red poplar tree that looks like it's exploding out of the canvas because that is the way I feel it. To me, I'm not just looking at a poplar, but an entity full of energy and life. Light helps me see the poplar, but beyond that, there is an atmosphere on and around it, and then there is, for lack of a better word, the emotion. Put together, what ultimately happens is that my pieces, in a sense, become dreams that take reality to a deeper place.”

Matthew lives in Santa Fe , New Mexico . Landscape painting is his primary subject matter. He is represented by Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe , NM ; Lynne Fine Art; Scottsdale , AZ ; and Firedworks Gallery, Alamosa, CO.

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Selected Exhibitions

2006   Holiday Show (group) WAXLANDER GALLERY, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2006   Harmony WAXLANDER GALLERY, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2005   Of Fields, Flowers, and Sky LYNNE FINE ART, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2005   Sacred Shrine (group) OWINGS DEWEY FINE ART, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2004   Grand Opening (group) LENNON FINE ART, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2003   Landscapes (group) WIFORD & VOGT FINE ART, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2003   Holiday Treasures (invitational) OWINGS DEWEY FINE ART, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2002   Christmas show (group) FIREDWORKS GALLERY, Alamosa, Colorado
2000   New Works (solo) RELIGIOUS SCIENCE CENTER OF SANTA FE, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000   Awakening (solo) BROADMOOR COMMUNITY CHURCH GALLERY, Colorado Springs, Colorado
2000   Retrospective (solo) MATTHEW HIGGINBOTHAM GALLERY, Dixon, New Mexico
1998   Collection (group) GALAXY GALLERY, Spokane, Washington
1996   The Southwest Series, Reunion (solo) BEDFORD GALLERY, Colorado Springs, Colorado
1996   New Mexico: The First Series (sol o ) METRO MALL GALLERY, Spokane, Washington
1996   Featured Works (group) SASAK GALLERY, Seattle, Washington
1995   Gallery Artists (invitational) STREET OF DREAMS, Seattle, Washington
1995   Reunion (group) BEDFORD GALLERY, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Commissions

2006   JAMES & ALEXIS PUGH, Winter Park, Florida
2005   Sue & Joe Platt, St. George, Utah 2005 Sue & Joe Platt, St. George, Utah
2005   Russ Elmer & Randy Yates, Potomac, MD
2005   CARRIE SOUTHARD, Houston, TX
2000   Dan & Jane Colvin, Denver, Colorado
1998   Ed Mayerson, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1998   Bob & Janet Henn, Colorado Springs, Colorado
1998   Steve & Debbie Gill, Mission Viejo, California
1998   Charles Guest, Greensboro, North Carolina
1997   Paul & Magui Jones, Coral Gables, Florida
1994   Mr. & Mrs. Wayne Johnson, Pullman, Washington

Collections

Kim Deforest, Fulshear, TX
Pat & Rene Gareau, Scottsdale, AZ
Linda Smith, Nashville, TN
Ed & Martha Greenberg, Boulder, CO
Neal & MaryAnn Carpenter, Colorado Springs, CO
John Langdon & Karen Nichols, Santa Fe, New Mexico
John Clubbe & Joan Blythe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Kalafor & Associates. San Diego, California
Susan Gallaher, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Eleanor Eisemenger, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Robert & Susan Bell, Corrales, New Mexico
Muir Agency, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Robert & Janet Henn, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Dan & Jane Colvin, Denver, Colorado
Franz Hiebert, Austin, Texas
David Hellenthall, Spokane, Washington
ALSC Architects, Spokane, Washington

Peter Trippe, “Artist’s Making Their Mark”, Fine Art Connoisseur, March/April 2007

Wolfgang Mabry, “At One With Nature”, Focus Santa Fe, August/September 2006, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Christina Boyle, "Former Ceramicist Finds Peace on Canvas", The Santa Fe New Mexican, May 5, 2003, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Joanna Fischer, "Higginbotham Presents Works at BCC", The Cheyenne Edition, May 5, 2000, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Joanna Fischer, "Scene Brief", The Cheyenne Edition, November 22, 1996, Colorado Springs, Colorado

"Featured Artist of the Month", Sasak Accessory News, Volume I, No. 2, July 1994, Seattle, Washington

"Ceramic Wall Platters by Higginbotham", Sasak Accessory News, Volume II, No. 2, April 1995, Seattle, Washington

Honors

First Place, Colorado Color Image Competition, Colorado Springs, CO, 1983
Honorable Mention, Colorado Color Image Competition, Colorado Springs, CO, 1983

Affiliations

Washington Artist Trust, Seattle, Washington, 1993-1995
Spokane Folklore Society, Spokane, Washington, 1994
Job Training & Partnership Act for Artists, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1989-1990


Matthew's paintings can be seen at Waxlander Gallery, 622 Canyon Road.
Hours: 9:30-5:30 daily. (505) 984-2202 or (800) 342-2202.

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