When Matthews talks, he usually looks people straight in the eye, with an engaging glance that makes one respond. Yet his paintings are quite different, with faces portrayed from an obscuring angle or in a shadow. I prefer mystery, he explains. I don't want to tell the whole story or be direct. I want to leave things open. Matthews prefers watercolor because of its unpredictability. The best watercolorists, he maintains, know how to turn accidents to their advantage, to transform a misplaced stroke into a visual discovery.
Today, Matthews lives in Evergreen, Colorado, and shows paintings in his own gallery in Denver as well as in many prominent galleries in the United States and Europe.