Artist Statement
I came to Botswana to serve, and this land served me back in ways I never anticipated. I stayed.
For many years now, my paintings have emerged from life lived close to the Okavango Delta — one of the last great intact wilderness systems on earth. The subjects find me: the ceremony and deep joy of traditional culture, the silence of salt pans stretching toward an impossible horizon, the brilliance and grace of a Ngamiland sunset, the quiet intelligence of animals going about the business of survival.
The work has always asked a harder question than what I’m looking at. I am as drawn to the interior of a landscape as its surface — to what is energetic, ancient, and sacred in a place. This thread runs through all three bodies of work: the Botswana Cultural paintings, which honor the communities I have lived with; the Landscapes, which are meditations on light, distance, and the particular character of this spot on the earth; and the Metaphysical works, which attempt to map the terrain where the visible and invisible meet.
I work primarily in oil and acrylic on canvas, often at large scale. I am a deliberate painter — some works take months to develop. A philosophy borrowed from those I most admire: concept must ride on technique, not instead of it.
Original works ship worldwide from Botswana and some stock is located in Iowa.
Commissions are taken selectively.
A portion of all sales supports community work in the village where I live and paint.
In Gratitude,
M. Biorn
Get in Touch
To enquire about original paintings, prints, or commissions: matt@biornfinearts.com
Prints at pixels.com