Reality with a Twist

If you are a fan of Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Salvador Dalí or Sandro Botticelli, you certainly will take to Pineville artist Matt Dawson’s faintly familiar interpretations of these masters with his own visual twists and humor.

Dawson, a self-taught artist and full-time pharmacist who was born in Shreveport, grew up in Natchitoches and now resides with his wife Amber and two daughters in Pineville across the Red River from Alexandria, has created an impressive body of work that continues to bring him growing attention and honors. The 2025 Louisiana Book Festival, for example, featured his work and he was the artist chosen to create the 2023 Natchitoches Christmas Festival poster. His paintings are now in collections in all 50 states as well as in Europe, Japan and Australia.

Aside from various accolades, Dawson, who keeps his studio at the River Oaks SquareArts Center in Alexandria, has a unique approach to painting. Artists often categorize their work as Impressionistic, Post-impressionistic, Surrealistic, Realistic or, perhaps, some other “-istic.” Dawson, however, opens his imagination, palette and canvas to the subject before him without committing to a specific style. At times, he seems taken by Van Gogh’s mind-bending brushstrokes in “Starry Night,” Hopper’s tigh

t realism in his moody “Nighthawks,” in the fluidity of Dalí’s iconic melting clock “The Persistence of Memory,” and Botticelli’s allegorical mythology in “Birth of Venus.”

“Night at the Jade Moon”

In a sense, his paintings are a tribute to those artists and, at the same time, a means for him to take in and express what he sees and filters though his own imagination and experiences. Take, for example, his Waffle House series. In “Starry Waffles,” we see Van Gogh. Hopper is clearly evident in “Waffle House Night,” Dalí in “Waffles of Memory,” and Botticelli in “Birth of Tammany.” Aside from his references to art history, Waffle House restaurants have special meaning to him. The company’s museum has one of his Waffle House prints in its collection.

“The Waffle House,” he says, “reminds me of a time when my wife and I were taking trips to New Orleans for doctor appointments. We’d always stop at the Waffle House in Donaldsonville on the way back. And it was just so comforting. And I love the minimalistic image the Waffle House projects on a canvas. It conveys so much from that yellow rectangle with black letters. I wanted that on canvas, hanging in my house. Problem is, I can’t keep them in stock long enough to do that. A lot of people share that same love.”

Like many artists who paint urban landscapes, Dawson draws inspiration from the Ashcan School of art that developed in the United States during the early 20th century. It was a movement that portrayed the rawness of daily life in New York’s poor neighborhoods. Hopper was one of its disciples.

“Waffle House Night”

As to subject matter, Dawson says it can be anywhere but he finds it mostly in the South. “I love my state and the southern region most,” he explains. “There is beauty in places that are overlooked in life and maybe even touch on some nostalgia in their life.” 

Looking over his portfolio, it becomes evident he prefers to paint night scenes such as his dimly lit sidewalk in Natchitoches or his dark, moody inner-city night images of a typically crowded and rainy Manhattan street.

Dawson says he likes “how light behaves at night” and by the “shadows” light casts. He loves “the mood of nighttime scenes” that comfort him. These images, he says, often appear in his imagination or places he’s been or in photographs he has seen. And then there’s the question of what drives him to create art.

“It’s the anticipation of what comes next,” says Dawson. “Sometime, I really don’t know where something is taking me and I need to finish it to find out. It’s like a puzzle. Also, I like to create things that people will see and make them smile.”

And he does.

For more information, visit mattdawson.art.

“Waffles of Memory”

EXHIBITS

Cajun

Rush Jagoe. Arnaudville photographer’s images of bayou and prairie cultural traditions, through July 25. Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette. acadianacenter-forthearts.org

Central

Now You See Me. Contemporary portraiture in Louisiana, through June 20. Alexandria Museum of Art. themuseum.org

NOLA

Sèvres Magnifique. French porcelain from the collection of Thomas B. Lemann, through Jan. 3, 2027. New Orleans Museum of Art. noma.org

North

5000 More Years. Cosmological imagery by Canadian artist Summer Emerald, through July 18. Masur Museum of Art, Monroe. masurmuseum.org

River Parishes

Daphnis and Chloe and Other Lovers: Lithographs by Marc Chagall, through May 24. LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge. lsumoa.org