Caia

Caia Matheson is an Award Winning Contemporary British Painter based in Brighton United Kingdom.
Caia Matheson was born in Johannesburg and educated in Tokyo and London.
Caia Matheson has exhibited alongside Billy Childish Jamie Reid Yohji Yamamoto Sir Paul McCartney David Freud
Painting selected by author Neil Gaiman for book A Calendar of Tales 2013
Winner Brighton Artist of the Year UK 2004
Nominated for the Ambassadors Art Prize Belgium 2005
Nominated for the Women’s Art Show Basingstoke UK 2005
Short listed for the Brighton Festival Art Prize UK 2004

Inspiration and Process
As a kid I used to be fascinated by the Lowly worm in the Richard Scarry books. I loved scouring each page to seek out that worm and when I found it I would feel most content like I had discovered a piece of secret truth that would uncover all the answers to my questions about the universe. There are some Lowly worms in my abstracts albeit in symbolic form
I am inspired by wabi sabi or the beauty of imperfection.
I love to mix paint mediums and experiment with the effects. This can be the most exciting part of the creative process
My mediums are oils - tubes of oil paint oil bars oil pastels and mixtures of oil paints and dyes. I enjoy the texture consistency and smell of them.
I paint with my hands and washing-up sponges onto canvases laid flat on the floor. It is a physical process.
I begin painting with a specific colour that I have in my minds eye. I then introduce other colours and begin to build layers on the canvas. These layers are then scratched off and layered over again like a palimpsest literally meaning “scraped clean and used again.”
I love the idea of previous markings that are not visible but are still an inherent part of the composition.
The layers are designed in a way to expose different subjects of the composition. These subjects are buried in the dark and light spaces and come out and disappear as the light changes presenting different aspects depending on shifting light conditions and mood
I consider each successive layer a generation to populate or depopulate the canvas as needed and create my own world as I go.
I like to create a world within worlds.


Portfolio:

Caia Matheson Abstract Paintings

Abstract original oil paintings on hand stretched canvas

Barcelona “Barcelona”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
100x100cm
Barcelona
Such cathedrals are only built by hearts in monstrous despair or Dionysian ecstasy,… only a Superman is capable of such creative despair.”
On Gaudi’s Familia Segrada” –Hermann Finsterlin

Remembering “Remembering”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
80x80cm
Remembering
Make peace with silence, and remind yourself that it is in this space that you'll come to remember your spirit.
–Wayne W. Dyer

Universal Love “Universal Love”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
70x80cm
Universal Love
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.
–John Lennon

Triffids 1 “Triffids 1”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
160x160cm framed
Triffids
And we danced, on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past.
– John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids

Triffids 2 “Triffids 2”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
160x160cm framed
Triffids
And we danced, on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past.
– John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids

Caia Matheson Tree & Landscape Paintings

Original abstract tree and landscape oil paintings

Wisdom lies beneath the Light “Wisdom lies beneath the Light”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
100x100cm
Wisdom Lies Beneath the Light
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
-Aristotle

When darkness falls “When darkness falls”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
110x140cm framed

Lifeforce “Lifeforce”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
100x100cm

Dreamscape “Dreamscape”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
60x40cm

Tranquil “Tranquil”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
made up of 4 canvases each 80x80cm
Tranquil
‘When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always.’
? Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras

Caia Matheson Figurative Paintings

Figurative original oil paintings on hand stretched canvas

Hold Me “Hold Me”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
80x80cm

Embrace “Embrace”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
60x40cm

Diffusion “Diffusion”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
100x80cm
Diffusion
The random movement of atoms, molecules, or ions from one site in a medium to another, resulting in complete mixing
-Encarta® World English Dictionary

Carolean “Carolean”

Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas
100x96cm