Artist Christopher Mathie is perhaps best known for his raku pottery, but for November Art Walk he unveiled a new set of paintings that show he is just as talented with a brush in his hand as he is sitting at a potter’s wheel.

“Form and Texture” is the name of his new exhibit at Two Vaults Gallery that includes both paintings and pottery. The two worlds meet in Mathie’s works - in both paint and clay his art reveals intriguing textures and forms that communicate his intent to bring out the subtle beauty of the natural world.

Born in Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1971, Mathie was raised in the country near the desert where he gained interest and appreciation for nature. He also showed artistic promise at an early age and went on to pursue drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and pottery. He developed a real affinity for clay and the potter’s wheel. Winning numerous scholarships, he attended University of Puget Sound and graduated in 1994 with honors in art, having already received significant recognition from Seattle area galleries.

Mathie’s Great Blue Heron series of paintings is fine art defined. He describes them as “a pictorial vision of my emotions.” His hand is at once bold and spontaneous yet delicate - the viewer can see how he loaded his brush with paint and took vigorous swipes at the canvas to create the characteristic wispy, long feathers that hang down on the stoic heron. He uses many colors to blend a background and bird that exude grace and refinement, drama and mystery.  

“I paint fast and crazy,” he said. “I don’t care what comes out. I just trust that it’s going to be right. I try never to be afraid.”

The pottery he has on display shows a true master’s touch. Some have a crackle-type finish in shades of soft pinks and grays, a few decorated with images of maple leaves on the vine sculpted into the clay. The set of “Reflecting Vessels” glisten and sparkle in the light; their outer finish is a metallic gold that is dazzling to the eyes.

His abstract impressionist paintings are such that the viewer can let the mind freely interpret a personal meaning in each work. “Crossing Over,” a big 48 x 48-inch abstract, looks like two bodies of water crashing together. Upon closer inspection, a little ladder and sailboat appear, etched into the thick, blue-toned paint with a palette knife. Vague little house-like structures in hues of reddish orange warm up the painting, suggesting life is present within the colder blues.

Mathie explained that the painting is about transitions and reflects a deeply personal transition he recently experienced during a severe illness that made his wrists, neck and back so weak he was unable to make pottery, his life’s work. Mathie’s raku vessels come in some big sizes, and even handling the wet clay for his smaller pieces became too painful for him. In fact, he became so ill he thought he might die.

“I thought my career was over,” he said. “My whole livelihood is my art. It’s all I do.” He has been supporting himself through his art for 16 years. Down but not out, Mathie turned to painting and over the past two years he has produced many pieces. The artist said his heron paintings are all forms of self-portraits. Mathie said he fell in love with the heron while living in a beach house on Puget Sound at the time he found out how sick he was. He would spend hours studying the regal bird, and it became his teacher and good luck symbol.

“Every time I draw, paint or sculpt a heron I feel it is imbued with my fondness for the bird, and I assign each heron some of my own emotions,” he said.

Mathie has since healed from his illness and he is getting stronger working with a personal trainer and combining Easter and Western treatments with yoga, meditation and acupuncture. His recuperation came just in time for him to be able to accept a commission from the Port of Tacoma to create a red raku vessel presented this year to dignitaries in Tokyo at a document signing between the port and the Japan-based NYK Line. In 2005, a large red raku vessel created by Mathie was presented to Yang Ming Corporation of Taiwan during the grand opening of their Olympic Container Terminal at Port of Tacoma.

Mathie’s art can be seen in other parts of the world as well. A collection of his works are on permanent display at the Port of Vladivostock, given as a corporate gift from the Port of Tacoma in 1997 to commemorate the Russian port’s 100th anniversary.

Mathie provides many local organizations with pottery to auction or sell at fundraisers. Forty-six of his raku vessels were part of a silent auction this year to benefit the Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Society’s campaign to build a new Harbor History Museum. Visitors to Good Samaritan Cancer Research Center in Puyallup can see his new “Raku Tile Donor Wall,” individual hand-made tiles bearing the names of individuals who made a significant contribution to the center.    

The artist’s exhibitions, commissions, collectors, accomplishments and honors are far too numerous to list here. Suffice it to say that Mathie is a true Northwest icon in the world of art, his ceramics and paintings currently represented by major galleries in California, Arizona, Oregon and Washington state. Tacomans can see and purchase his works on display in “Form and Texture” until Feb. 16, 2008. Two Vaults Gallery is located at 602 S. Fawcett. For more information, call (253) 759-6233 or visit www.twovaults.com.