The Full Story
Hello! I am Matt, the creator of Skyline Custom Artworks here in Bozeman, Montana. In addition to making art, I am a local 7th grade biology teacher, traveler, rock climber, gardener, lover of spiders, and adventurer. My artwork mixes my lifelong hobby of woodworking, my love of the outdoors, and an on-again off-again artistic streak that has taken many shapes over the last 41 years, 17 of which have been here in Bozeman where I currently live with my wife, daughter, and our three cats.
Inspiration
I have been exploring the outdoors my entire life. I am particularly inspired by our great national parks, many of which are the subjects of my work. Visit the Shop page to see what I have done and/or what is available. My goal is to someday be able to donate a percentage of all of my sales to the National Park Foundation. If you have a specific landscape or subject you are inspired by, please contact me and we can discuss whether it would be a good subject for my style of work!
First Piece
My endeavor into becoming an artist started with a need for a very large piece of artwork in our dining room. The inspiration of an actual mountain skyline, wood, and layers for depth all merged together in my head, and my artwork style was born. I received so much positive feedback about it, and I enjoyed making it so much, that I decided to pursue making more to see if this could be a fun and creative outlet for me for the long Montana winters.
Tetons in Hazy Yellow - Grand Teton National Park 78" x 24"
Design Process
All of my work starts out with a design process that focuses on how the layers will work together and create the best sense of depth for the specific piece. With the exception of some custom pieces, I hand draw all of my layer designs, digitize them, and use a laser to cut them out. I used to hand cut everything, but it was extremely time consuming and everyone thought they were laser cut anyways!
Locations
You can see my work in many places! They are for sale in various gift shops in Yellowstone National Park, Montana Gift Corral in downtown Bozeman, various coffee shops at different times of year, and most recently at local art fairs and farmers markets.
If you are local, I am always happy to meet with you to show you some work in person.
