A brief Autobiography.

A brief Autobiography of my painting life.

I started being interetsed in the classic arts when I was 22, 1997- beethoven, mozart, leonardo, michaelangelo and particuarly the impressionists. Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne. At that time I had a dream about meeting my Soul a bright Golden version of myself. It was so inspiring I painted it and took it to my local art gallery in Brixton London. Where I lived. The owner said that the painting was good but he wanted a still life. So I painted a still life. And many more.

I did not learn to paint properly until i was 25. I had been striving for 3 years to understand how the impressionists like monet van gogh cezanne could get such beautiful paintings. One day I sat outside a Scottish Pub. And after several hours I took it into the pub and the owner bought the painting for $80.
That time 2000 was a time of study and I painted still life and landscape and portraits till i learned to paint properly. I had about 50 finished pieces. I neighbor a photographer saw me working by my canvas and became interested and started explaining that my paintings were good and that I did not need to learn any more. He bought about 10 paintings. from me and also made for me with his professional photography a Portfolio of my work. That led to me for the first time becoming professional and starting to sell many paintings. That was in Scotland.

2003 When I moved back to London I found the market very competitive and stopped selling paintings. But ended in a squat on CLapham Common with some paintings for sale in a Cafe next door. I did sell a painting of the Westminister Abbey to a man from Cananda. Meanwhile I was painting the beautiful London Bridges, Wandsworth, Battersea ALbert etc. . Life was still not kind and I ended homeless for a while for about 6 months. And walked around the country looking for work and a place to live.  My Painting stopped for a while.

I ended in Birmingham. 2005 With the help of Muslims, I was a Christian but Christians in England are not very kind. But the Muslims helped me into a house. I did not paint for a long time. After that I went to Wales. Looking for peaceful country scenes. It was 2006. Here I met my wife and a Grandma who bought lots of paintings from me. One of The River Wye with Swans and Boats. I lived with my wife in Wales for a while and we bought a Camper Van and went abroad to FRance and Then we drove across europe and bought a house in Bulgaria with the help of the Grandma from Wales.

We now live in Bulgaria my wifeis a full time  artist . And I am building the house. We run out of water in summer and we get very cold in winter amongst other things so mostly I am learning to insulate and build walls and chop wood and build water catchment systems. Trying to make a happy life with my wife.

When we finish our house then I hope to start painting full time.

Regards Mathew Imanuel - GOd go with you too!