MEET ARTIST & OWNER MAURA MATTHEWS

Hello! I'm Maura - an artist and art educator. I've been painting since high school, when I first learned about color, composition and contrast from my teacher Walt Bartman. For me paintings are puzzles to be solved and those three components keep me plugging away!

I sell original and commissioned oil paintings, exhibit my work at local businesses and lead painting classes for children and adults. You can find me painting and teaching at the Pigs Alley Gallery, named after the street in Fairmount where I once lived. 

I love exploring, noticing and creating paths for the eyes with patches of paint. I find great joy in painting quickly and expressively with my palette knife and want my art to convey the energy and movement that went into making it. Vibrant and textured, my oil paintings celebrate the contrasts that make the world beautiful to me.

Recent honors include Best in Show at the 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2021 Chestnut Hill (CH) Fall for the Arts Festivals, Honorable Mentions in the 2026 Philadelphia Sketch Club (PSC) Art of the Flower Show and 2025 Scenes of the Schuylkill Art Show, Best Landscape in the 2024 PSC Art of the Flower Show, First Place in Oils/Acrylics at the 2022 CH Fall for the Arts Festival, Best Portrait in the 2022 PSC Small Oils Show and Best Still Life in the 2021 PSC Art of the Flower Show.