Fred Matthews
Fred Matthews started drawing at an early age, usually with different types of pencils. His preferred medium now is ball point pen. He likes the contrast that can be created in black and white and strives to make drawings that look realistic, but also slightly impressionist and not quite photographic.
In the past, his work has sold at galleries in Woodland Park, Cripple Creek, Guffey and also the Monarch and Gallery 80863 in Victor. Currently he has drawings of coastal scenes and wildlife displayed at a gallery in Texas. He has also participated several times in VCTA.
Fred has no formal art training aside from a high school drafting class. When he was 18 and 19, he worked as a draftsman for Los Angeles County. As child, he also learned several graphics art techniques from his father and grandmother. Mardi Davis, a local artist and one of the founders of VCTA, was his aunt. His great grandfather worked for the Stratton mines. Doug McNeil with the Victor Heritage Society put together an article about him on their website. It is titled, “Memories of Edward Franklin Page.”
His first visit to Victor was as a teenager in 1971. He moved to Northern Colorado in 1978 and to the Colorado Springs area in 1984. He lived in Woodland Park for several years and has a place in Victor. In the 80s and 90s, he walked all over the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, taking several photographs, many later used as subjects of drawings. Fred currently live on the plains about 40 miles east of Colorado Springs.
