Welcome To Jenkins Art Gallery
I paint “story portraits” on drum heads and aged barnwood with acrylic paint and Swarovski crystals that catch my subjects with a bit of their story in the background.
Matt Jenkins Bio
My mother was art. She saw it in everything and I grew up with the smell of fresh oil paint dancing across newly stretched canvas, an empty Chock Full of Nuts can with turpentine and some color stained cloths she wiped her hands on perfuming the air. My brothers and I had our hands in finger paints, pastels, crayons, and clay very early on thanks to mom.
While my father is best known for his ability to paint with words, his love of woodcrafting and appreciation of the barnwood that surrounded us, led me to paint on these centuries-old canvases, following the stories in the grain.
I spent most of my childhood in South Central Kentucky, full of lush vegetation and rolling hills. These landscapes became inspiration for my mothers’ work, her use of vibrant colors always excited me and I felt each piece was trying to tell me something.
I moved to Nashville in 1980 and began playing drums with a rock band and was having a blast in Music City. The town was small, so accessible, friendly and full of the best players I had ever heard. I moved in 1989 and spent 25 years traveling around and never considered the drumheads I was playing on to be potential canvases or found any inclination to hold a paintbrush as an alternative to a drumstick.
In January 2017, I was encouraged by my good friend legendary designer, Manuel Cuevas to stop hiding and make art after I gave him a portrait of himself on a bass drumhead drawn with colored sharpies and a few crystals in homage to the Rhinestone Rembrandt. I’ve since made several of these pieces, using acrylic paint, a crystal here and there and a bit of my subject's history and interests in the background. I enjoy using this medium as the round shape lends well to portraits and the slightly rough coat takes the paint well. I also began experimenting with aged barnwood. The grain is very pronounced and a challenge to work with but the results have been natural and fitting when I find the story in the wood and the relationship to it with my subject. These pieces are very unique and some wood boards are centuries old.
I am currently studying at Firstlight Art Academy in Brentwood, TN