Sam Matthews is an American born artist. He was raised in Missouri on his family's farm and educated at Central Missouri State University. He has a background in education, art, and library science, with a master's degree -and post masters degree work- in library science and instructional technology. After teaching internationally for 20 years, he now lives and works in Dublin, Ireland as a full time artist. The subject of Sam's paintings ranges from book illustrations, to classic landscapes, to romantic or fantasy paintings; but more recently, to semi-abstract works. His main discipline is watercolour, but has also worked in oil, acrylic and bronze. He works with a small, flexible pallet -painting on heavily textured, French, handmade papers. In each painting, he focuses on the paper's features to enhance the grain and colours of his paints. His style and selection of subjects makes his work unique and easily recognizable. As an artist, Sam's recent studies in abstract have been instrumental in the creation of his current work. Defined as "semi-abstract, two dimensional cityscapes," his paintings are regularly exhibited at The Framework Gallery in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland, but may also be purchased through many other galleries.