Le Marais painting makes it to Royal Academy

Saturday 09 June 2018

A painting of Le Marais flats from local artist Matt Falle will be getting some royal exposure this summer: it will be on display at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition from 12 June.

While Matt's artwork has been shortlisted for the RA Summer Exhibition before, this is the first time one of his paintings will actually go on display.

While he has painted all his life, it's only in the past 15 years that Matt has been doing it seriously. Over that period, he has exhibited in the UK and France. Locally, he also showed paintings of Madagascar in association with Durrel Wildlife Conservation Trust. 

He told Express: "I like a lot of different things. I like painting leisure activities in a slightly abstract way. I work mainly with bright colours so in way you could say it is pop art."

Pictured: Le Marais flats in St. Clement.

With one of his most recent paintings, Flat Block, Matt took a different turn. Standing at over a meter, the oil on wood panel painting is fairly large but its size is not the most surprising feature about it. It's its subject, Le Marais flat blocks, "not your usual Jersey scene," as Matt says. "It's a very unrepresented Jersey scene - not something one would normally send perhaps. I live nearby and I see them a lot. There is nothing as high in Jersey. 

"I found the white façade with the black windows quite interesting. It's like a white monolith and that's something that inspired me. I've often been inspired by window patterns in buildings and these are a great example of that. My work is also influenced by the process of printing and I saw the flats as a simple print picture - although I paint most of my pictures which look like prints. I like simplicity in my pictures, but there is more to it, each black window can represent a person and activity that inhabits that space."

Pictured: "Flat Block" is an oil painting on wood panel measuring 130cm by 100cm.

After featuring at the 'Varnishing Day' event, a traditional preview event for the artists, Flat Block willbe exhibited from the 12 June at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly. To quote the Royal Academy, they describe the Summer Exhibition as "a world-famous contemporary art show which draws together works by Internationally renowned artists, exciting new talent and first time exhibitors."