An Interview With Walter Matia
by D. Dominick Lombardi
pg 32
Walter Matia was recently named the 2007 Master Wildlife Artist by the Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. Over the past thirty years, many such greats in the field of animal representation have achieved this same honor, such as Kent Ullberg, John Sharp, Larry Barth, and most recently Andrea Rich.
In speaking with Walter Matia not long ago, we discussed what seemed to be the core characteristic of his work, and it boils down to one basic element: gesture. “Being representational is only part of the equation. And the representation means very little if you have the gesture wrong. Animals, in general, are far more sensitive to their surroundings than urban-dwelling humans....
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