About
.../miscellaneous - is a personal journal, self educational in nature, containing notes and images that inspire me, or that I wish to learn more about - as such, it includes works by other people as noted with full acknowledgment and credit to authors and sources where possible.
I also share content of my own making that I think is worth sharing with a larger audience. If there is any work by others who object to having their work posted here, I will remove the content if so requested.
Visit Matt Niebuhr - Works a site featuring my work exclusively. I established my studio practice in the summer of 2012 named "West Branch Studio".
Matt Niebuhr - Drawings a visual journal of my work.
If you are interested in work(s) for purchase please see this or simply email me: niebuhr.matt [at] gmail.com.
Search for content
untitled (shimmer, formless)
2010_04_11
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
detail from untitled (shimmer, formless)
2010_04_11
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
Matt Niebuhr
untitled (waterfall)
2010_03_27
charcoal on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
I’m not particularly interested in trying reproduce reality - to achieve the illusion of realism - or to pursue that as a defining issue in drawing. I simply made this drawing to more fully embed and commit to paper my memory of the falls from a recent hike with the kids…
detail: untitled (waterfall)
2010_03_27
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
In some ways this drawing now that I’ve made it, displaces my mental image - it is interesting how memory distorts certain features of experience. Admittedly, distortions come too as a product of technique and skill.
detail: untitled (waterfall)
2010_03_27
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
untitled (superfly)
2010_03_24
charcoal on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
detail of black arm band…
untitled, (22 yrs previous)
2010_03_12
charcoal on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
untitled, (78 yrs)
2010_03_10
charcoal on paper
33 1/2” x 58”
Matt Niebuhr
Working on a series - with fascination and interest in Dendrochronology which briefly is the scientific methods of the analysis of patterns of tree-rings.
Of course I’m not trained in the science, but I counted a few tree rings with my daughter during a walk in the local woods last Sunday. From my rough counting and unschooled observations - the tree was somewhere in the neighborhood of 184 years old - it was difficult to read the surface but quite fascinating. Imagine - 184 years….. around 1825 or so - maybe a sapling in the times of Lewis and Clark…
detail: untitled,
2010_03_08
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
larger
Finding fragments of this drawing framed through photographs as satisfying as completing the picture. Second generation images maybe with the curious effect of the lens and of masking out /cropping bits of information - something worth thinking more about.
detail: untitled
2010_03_08
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
larger - ( a the return of the appearance of grain through the transfer of carbon powder to paper …)
Below is the overall drawing.
untitled, ( )
2010_03_08
charcoal on paper
30” x 44”
Matt Niebuhr
detail: untitled, (pipe, #1)
2010_03_04
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
Slowly finding my way through / into an idea by working in a series…
detail: untitled, (pipe, #1)
2010_03_04
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
This story about stacked stones serving as a visual warning to locals in the context of Taliban territory in a foreign land - treading among hidden IED’s hangs in my mind…
untitled, (pipe, #1)
2010_03_04
charcoal on paper
30” x 43 1/2”
Matt Niebuhr
detail from untitled, (Beach, #1)
2010_02_28
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
I’m renewing my interests in drawing - thanks in part to seeing some wonderful work by Longo (previous post) - which I managed to see again today at the PAM - still monumental and inspiring as ever. What’s refreshing about drawing is that there are few if any limits really, except the constraints of the surface of the paper (how much you can “work it”) before it begins to fail and the charcoal stick in your hand or rubbed fingertips - which are all part of the work. Not knowing where it may lead or if it will inform other things, drawing brings me a sense of satisfaction. I’m developing a sense of “ritual” in photographing the “final” state of drawing. I’m happily finding moments within each drawing effort - sometimes more satisfying curiously when composed afterwords through the camera’s viewfinder - perhaps it may be worth drawing again with this in mind.
untitled, (Beach, #1)
2010_02_28
charcoal on paper
24” x 50”
Matt Niebuhr
