Hello, my name is Mathew Teegarden, and I'm honored you're taking a moment from your day to read my story.

I'm a contemporary painter working between Colorado's Front Range and the Indianapolis metro area. My work spans from fierce abstraction to transcendent symbolism and is increasingly recognized by collectors and critics for its "haunting beauty, emotional immediacy, and psychological depth."

My paintings veer—sometimes violently—across styles, mediums, and emotional registers. Most exist somewhere between clarity and dream, often arising from little more than the weather of whatever storm or stillness is stirring inside me. Some whisper through restraint and quiet sorrow; others shout with texture and color, born of unfiltered joy or manic intensity. I'm drawn to the glow of Impressionism, the ache of Symbolism, and the emotional grandeur of Romanticism. These influences inspire me, but I move past them as the moment demands—into a raw, visceral expression that has become a defining hallmark of my work.

I was born and raised in the rural town of Montpelier, Indiana, and earned my bachelor's degree in communications from Ball State University (home to one of the Midwest's most underrated art museums, I must note). I've spent most of my adult life in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, in Boulder County, Colorado, where my heart belongs to the four extraordinary children I've had the honor to know and raise.

I came to painting late in life—sparked by a casual New Year's resolution in 2022 to try something I'd long admired in others, but assumed I'd be terrible at. And terrible I was. But it didn't matter. From the first brushstrokes, I was in love—and soon certain that I was created by the Creator Himself to paint. What a vocation! Since then, I've been blessed by the mentorship and friendship of Peg Hilliard, a beloved figure in Boulder County's art education community. I’ve been deeply influenced by artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Jenny Saville, and Frank Auerbach; inspired by the daring of Twombly, Basquiat, Mitchell, and Richter; and sustained by a quiet reverence for Monet, Hassam, and Cassatt. And, I have known the confidence of my family and a great number of friends, well before I knew it from myself.

I paint in a desperate hope to reconcile a life marked by seasons of addiction and mental illness. I paint to bear witness to the joy, beauty, and wonder that have also shaped my story. I paint to show my children the value of dreams, and to offer a living testament that life's second acts can be the most honest and powerful. Above all, I paint in hopes of meeting others in that sacred space where expressive resonance lives—where art allows us to feel seen, stirred, and somehow more whole.

I hope to meet you in just such a space one day!