‘The Water Boy’ by Matthew Huntley

Artist: Matthew Huntley
Title: ‘The Water Boy’
Medium: Gouache on watercolour paper
Dimensions: 7.5″ x 8.75″
Framing: Framed (frame size: 11″ x 14″)
Year of Creation: 2023

NOTE: This piece was available to purchase as part of our ‘The Eclectic Majestic’ show, which ran between 7th – 28th July 2023. If you would like to inquire about its current availability, please email sales@wowxwow.com and we will be delighted to assist.

Description

‘The Water Boy’ by Matthew Huntley

Artist: Matthew Huntley
Title: ‘The Water Boy’
Medium: Gouache on watercolour paper
Dimensions: 7.5″ x 8.75″
Framing: Framed (frame size: 11″ x 14″)
Year of Creation: 2023

About the Artwork:

Raquel Torres could barely breathe. She doubled over, a panting, sweat-soaked mess surrounded by the flaming ruins of a city she’d been called upon to protect. Well, the monster was dead, so that was something. Besides, everything here could be rebuilt; the advance warning should have given everyone more than enough time to…Raquel let out a puff of air somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. The advance warning. There’d been two blips—her work was only half done. She slowed her breathing, steeled herself to push on with limbs that were already screaming from exhaustion.

Something broke the silence only a few blocks away. It took several seconds for Raquel to realize that it was the bassy horn of a semi-truck. Of course, to her, it sounded dinky, shrill. Comical, even. Hands still on her knees, she rose her head up, blew the bangs from her eyes. There, up the street, were two pinpricks of artificial light carefully winding their way around the debris. In a dead city lit only by sporadic fires and the spotlight of the support helicopter overhead, there was no mistaking them. They stopped, and a few moments later the red beacon of a road flare burst to life. At this distance, and with over 200 feet of height separating them, Raquel couldn’t make out which driver had come to her aid. She’d just have to thank them all when she got back to HQ. That tanker held approximately 10,000 gallons of sugar, caffeine, electrolytes, and even a potent painkiller, and she was going to need every drop.

About the Artist:

(Artist Bio)

Matthew Huntley was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1993. He studied oil painting at the Herron School of Art and Design, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2016. In 2017, he studied under oil painters Donato Giancola, Greg Manchess, Rebecca Guay, Boris Vallejo, and Julie Bell at the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, Massachusetts. In his current practice, he combines childhood nostalgia for shows like Power Rangers, Powerpuff Girls, and Megas XLR with his love of Baroque and 19th century academic art. With his long-running project Vigilant Lioness, he uses traditional materials to create large-scale narrative paintings of gigantic heroines and monsters. Inspired by memories of growing up in a dysfunctional household, his paintings explore non-traditional gender roles, femininity, and masculinity. He currently lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana.