Written by Harriet Edleson
Photography by Jill Jasuta
INGRID MATUSZEWSKI
The discovery of an idyllic Eastern Shore town propelled an artistic career rooted in emotion
During the pandemic, day trips to the Eastern Shore from her home in Arlington, Virginia, led Ingrid Matuszewski to Oxford, Maryland—a town that stirred her soul.
When she found a house built in 1875 on a peninsula that overlooks Town Creek, Ingrid knew it was the perfect place to paint. She envisioned the backyard she’d transform into a studio.
“We just wanted somewhere we could escape to, me more than my husband,” she says, of buying the home. “I was just looking for that kind of community.”
Ingrid recalled the close-knit community her maternal grandparents had in Madison County, Virginia, and she sought something similar. “There is so much history to Oxford. I just get a lot of inspiration. I mostly paint in my studio there. I go around and take photos of scenes.”
Then, she paints.
A solo exhibition of her work, The Way Home, is scheduled for the month of December at The Zebra Gallery in Easton. A reception open to the public is scheduled for 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 5.
Her paintings, now mostly acrylic on canvas, can be as large as 48” by 48” and are typically bold splashes of color that evoke emotions, mostly joy. “I try to paint from a place where people can find peace, where they can take a deep breath. I want them to walk down that path and say, ‘I’m home.’”
Reminiscent of 19th Century Impressionism, her paintings emerge from the colors and tools she chooses. Sometimes, it’s a 2” by ½”-wide palette knife. Other times, it’s rubber color shapers “that look like spatulas,” Ingrid says. Or, it can be “big, bold brush strokes” that come from her soul.
Her inspiration? It’s “an amalgam of everything,” she says. “I’m particularly drawn to landscapes” in reds, blues, yellows and greens. She also paints florals and scenes from Great Falls, Virginia. Sometimes, in a burst of creativity, she’ll paint as many as three or four paintings in a day without sketching first. “They’re a mix,” she says. “They’re Oxford, but they’re not.”
Her journey began 10 years ago at age 49, when her two sons, now 22 and 21, were still in middle school. “I don’t know what happened,” she recalls. “I was a full-time mom at that point.” Walking along the C&O Canal in Great Falls, she encountered a group of plein air painters from Walt Bartman’s class at the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery in Glen Echo, Maryland. It “felt kind of like a lightning bolt,” Ingrid says. “‘I just want to do that,’” she thought, and she enrolled in Bartman’s class soon after.
Earlier in her life, Ingrid worked in international education and training, living in Japan twice before she married and started a family. Critical success from her art has come through participation and awards in Eastern Shore juried shows and the Washington, D.C., metro area. Becoming an artist, so far, has been one of the most personally satisfying endeavors. “It has so changed my life,” Ingrid says. “Now I just wake up and I can’t wait to do it.” CS
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