Today we’d like to introduce you to Mattie Neal.
Hi Mattie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I am 21 years old and am studying to be an artist. My dad is an artist, and I have never wanted to be anything else. Growing up, my favorite place to be was in my dad’s studio. He paints portraits, and I think he has the best job in the world. He is fascinated by people and gets to spend time with those who are the very best at what they do. What an education. He always encouraged me and provided as much paint and paper as I could use.
My dad decided to study art two years into the pre-med program at Lipscomb University. He had heard of Norman Rockwell but didn’t grow up with a real sense that being an artist could be a career. My grandfather was paying for his education, and when my dad came to him wanting to make this change from doctor to artist, my grandfather supported him. Not long before my grandfather died, my dad asked him why he supported his decision when so many parents don’t. My grandfather said that he knew nothing about art, but he knew my dad. We are both so fortunate for his wisdom. So, very different from my dad, I grew up in the art world. So many of the adults that I admired as a little girl were artists. I think I can say that most were. I wanted to be around them. I wanted to be in my dad’s classes and watch people draw and paint.
My dad’s teacher, Everett Raymond Kinstler has my lifelong adoration and provides infinite inspiration and teaching. His career spanned over 70 years and he painted everybody… actors and actresses to astronauts, authors, and 8 US presidents. A highlight of every year growing up was our summer stay with the Kinstlers in Connecticut. Everett always encouraged me to keep a sketchbook and this was one of my greatest sources of artistic growth. He would tell me that through drawing what I observed in my sketchbook, I was learning to see. Everett passed away in 2019 and painted until the very end. He said to my dad, how lucky are we that every day we get to wake up excited by what we do? At the time, he was in his 90s.
He was stimulated every moment. He never stopped pushing, growing, experimenting, and learning. He was a true artist. My dad spent one of his last days with him in the hospital. He talked about everything. He said, “What are we going to do about Mattie?” At the time, he and my dad had been talking a lot about my education. I was in my last year of high school, and I knew what I wanted to learn, we just couldn’t find anywhere that was teaching it. My dad said, “I know Everett, we’ve looked here and there and it just hasn’t been what we’re looking for.” “NO,” he said jokingly, “I mean we have to break her fingers or she’ll get all the work!” Repeating some very important words that James Montgomery Flagg said to him when he was young, he told me that I was DOOMED to be an artist. He encouraged me and believed that I had potential. Nothing can replace the early inspiration, information, and encouragement that he gave me.
Growing up this way, I had a very clear conception of what I liked and how I wanted to paint. I adored John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla and Anders Zorn. All artists who you might think of as being “brushy realists”. They were expressive but didn’t sacrifice realism for thick paint and brush strokes. They had both. The biggest challenge in art education today is finding somewhere that offers a balance of these two things. Most schools and programs are either very conceptual or very classical. Opposite extremes. This has been a great challenge for young people pursuing traditional art, and I was very fortunate to have friends that were a few years ahead of me in their educational journey. These friends had decided to pursue art through workshops rather than traditional art school and were creating exceptional work.
Following their example, I decided to pursue painting the slightly unconventional but very old-fashioned way of studying directly with today’s foremost artists. I have traveled around the world to meet and take workshops and classes with the painters and sculptors I admire most. In a way, I have gotten to pick my faculty. Working artists are incredibly generous with their knowledge and time and pour into their students. I have also had the opportunity to study historic artists through travel and visiting museums. The annual Portrait Society of America conference has given direction to my life and guided my pursuit of art. I started attending when I was 8 years old and have met my favorite artists and many of my best friends there. I have also moved with my family to New York City part-time.
The year I graduated from high school my father took over Kinstler’s Manhattan studio in the National Arts Club where he worked for more than 60 years. That has been an incredible and unexpected blessing. I have gotten to study part-time for the last three years in the city at the Art Students League and through life classes in our building. I have recently become a member of the Salmagundi Club and have a piece in the collection of the Players Club.
Last fall I was chosen as one of 12 artists to participate in the Copyist Program at the MET. For 9 weeks I got to paint in the American Wing every Monday. I was studying Sargent’s Wyndham sisters. The first day, I was terrified of splattering paint on Sargent and very self-conscious with Madam X and hundreds of visitors looking over my shoulder, but I got over it very quickly. This summer I have been traveling and working on portrait commissions. I spent some time in Paris and London painting and visiting artists’ studios. I taught my first workshop last month in Easton, Connecticut. I just returned from a lovely landscape painting trip to Maine. Next week I will be joining a plein air workshop group in Wyoming as the guest artist. This fall, as I enter my fourth year since graduating high school, I will be moving into a studio of my own here in Nashville and will be teaching with Drawing New York in Manhattan.
Something I have kept at the front of my mind is the advice to a young pupil from John Singer Sargent, “You say you are studying painting to become a portrait painter. I think you would be making a great mistake if you kept that only in view during the time you intend to work on a life class — where the object of the student should be to acquire sufficient command over his material to do whatever nature presents to him.” Painting people is my passion, and I hope to become a portrait painter who always remembers the value of being an artist first.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
You may have heard people say, “Writing is easy, writing well is hard.” The same certainly applies to painting.
Painting is hard, and I feel very fortunate to wake up every day to push toward that next step in understanding. Of course, there have been challenges, but they have made me better, and as I am at the very beginning of my life as an artist I suspect there will be many more to come!
Thanks – So what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am working to become a stronger artist with a focus on painting portraits . My teachers have taught me the importance of equipping myself to paint anything nature presents to me, so I have spent lots of time painting landscapes in plein air and working on still life and figurative works. Working in each subject matter has helped me grow and has informed my work as a whole.
My work is probably considered traditional, and my lineage of teachers could be described as “brushy realists”. My father’s teacher studied with artists who studied directly with Sargent.
I love painting commissioned portraits. I hope to interpret everyone uniquely and create successful portraits as well as interesting paintings. I so enjoy having the opportunity to paint a variety of people. Some of my recent subjects have included a surgeon, an artist, a group of four siblings under 12, a writer, and a bride.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
My website is mattiereeneal.com and my Instagram is @mattieree. I am taking portrait commissions and selling my non-portrait work online. I also teach private lessons and workshops locally.
Contact Info:
- Website: mattiereeneal.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattieree?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw==
Image Credits
Peggy Kinstler
