Rich immersive paintings bringing energy and personality to your space.
Your home is your retreat — a space that reflects who you are. Somewhere to pause, to feel, to curate beauty on your own terms. My paintings are created with that in mind: an invitation to slow down, to reflect, to connect.
I’m Clare Matthews, a mixed media artist based in beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand. My work is shaped by the natural world — weather, light, layers, colour, texture, and form — reimagined through a language of paint that shifts between playfulness and quiet intention.
Each piece begins as an exploration: adding, scraping back, scratching, flooding with colour — until something starts to emerge. A conversation. A place. A feeling. A trace of something half-remembered. When there’s nothing more to say, that’s when I step back — and invite you to pick up the thread.
Past Exhibitions
2022 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist) Wellington June 2022
2021 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist), Wellington June 2021
2020 Unlocked Art Exhibition – St Patrick’s College, Wellington – 6 November
2020 Dunedin Art Show, Live and Online – 19-22 November – live and online
2020 New Zealand Art Show, Online 1 May – 30 December 2020
2020 Auckland Art Show, Online 18-20 September 2020
2019 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist), Wellington June 2019
2018 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist), Wellington June 2018
2017 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist), Wellington June 2017
2017 ARTrove Exhibition, Wellington, September 2017
2016 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist), Wellington June 2016
2016 ARTrove Exhibition, Wellington, September 2016
2015 New Zealand Art Show (Single Wall Artist), Wellington June 2015
2014 New Zealand Art Show, Wellington, August 2014
2014 ARTrove Exhibition, Wellington, September 2014
2013 ARTrove Exhibition, Wellington, 5th-11th September
Award Winning Art
My work has been recognised with the following awards.
Creativity and Promise Scholarship Award, Friends of Pātaka Exhibition 2022
Open Award, Friends of Pātaka Exhibition 2018, including a one month residency at Pātaka in 2019
People’s Choice Award, Friends of Pātaka Exhibition 2016
People’s Choice Award, Artel Gallery One Square Meal Exhibition 2012
“It’s not what you look at that matters,
It’s what you see.”
