Biography

Matthew Higginbotham was born in Colorado Springs, CO in 1963. His early beginnings with art took place in a pottery studio in 1974 at the age of 11 at Tulsa’s Philbrook Art Institute.  This weekend class his mother enrolled him in opened up something deeper that would one day lead to a career in the arts first on the kick wheel and eventually on canvas.  From 1991-1995, Higginbotham owned Northwest Pottery and Fine Arts based in Spokane, Washington, selling both functional pottery and fine are ceramics.  Galleries such as Sasak in the Seattle Design Center, Seattle’s Southwest Collections, and others throughout the state marketed and sold his work.  Then in 1995 a creative transformation occurred that led Higginbotham to painting.  He discovered 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.  This change was profound.   In a matter of days, he decided to sell most all of his pottery equipment and devote himself entirely to painting.  His decision turned out to be life changing.

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 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.”

Higginbotham moved to Chimayo, NM at the end of 1995 and continued his series of churches, one of which was his first large commission of the famous Santuario de Chimayo.  At the same time, he also ran Casa Escondida Bed & Breakfast for an absentee owner, sold his paintings and postcards to guests, and was represented in a local gallery. In time, he began to focus on landscapes as his subject of choice in his paintings.   

“In the early years of painting I experimented with many subjects and eventually landscapes became my primary focus. It just seemed natural for me to want to study the nuances of what I was seeing in the fields and skies, and the more I painted them, the more I began to understand how they made my feel.  Then when I found the colors that worked the best for me and could paint better, a whole new world opened up.  I could really get into a landscape and start seeing the many wonderful opposites- darkness and light, peace and chaos, subtlety and directness, intensity and muteness.  At that level, I could begin to really start expressing my emotions on canvas.”

Artist Statement

I paint my personal experience of the lands in which I live; what I see and what I feel. The cloud pieces represent the beginning of the cycle of life in the New Mexico environment that all my work refers to. The spring monsoons bring the first rains after a long winter – they replenish the earth and bring forth life from the ground. The rivers swell as these pregnant clouds let loose sky-sweeping storms and the acequia ditches flood. The acequias bring water to wild flowers and farms which start to bloom and grow. The colors in the burgeoning flowers and fields reflect, in brilliant hues, the subtle colors that dance across the sky and within the spirit of the massing clouds. Each season offers up its soul - manifest in varying hues and intensities. Spring’s brilliant colors eventually transform to the softer, subtler shades of fall.

This body of work is very much about the spirit of life in water- clouds are transcendent sprits and rivers carry their life. Water holds color and light and nourishes our environment with it. It nourishes and excites and soothes me as I hike through and meditate amid these rangelands and bosques. I feel as though I am a constant witness of miracles. By painting this glory and the emotions I experience in the landscape, I hope to bring that energy and that soulfulness to each canvas so that it communicates the reverence I feel for these living lands. It’s especially important at this time when we truly must cherish and protect and be thankful for the natural environment; it nurtures the life around us, and the life within us.

Galleries

Selected Exhibitions

2008   Living Lands (solo) WAXALNDER GALLERY, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2007   Infinite Grace (solo) WAXLANDER GALLERY, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2007   Holiday Show (group) WAXLANDER GALLERY, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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
1990   Reunion (group) BEDFORD GALLERY, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Selected Commissions

2006   Alan & Ann Bogdanow,  Santa Fe, New Mexico
2006   Alexis Pugh, Houston, TX
2006   Kristen & Ray Jette, Winter Park, Florida
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 De Forest, 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

Wolfgang Mabry, “Living Lands”, Focus Santa Fe, April/May 2008

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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