Matthew Ratcliffe

Ilustration, concept, fantasy, conceptual, corporate, drawing, painting.

My illustration work sits between figurative and conceptual. I believe the human form is one of the most beautiful and emotive tools in an artists repetoire to communicate with an audience. I however don't like to create gloss and decoration, prefering to stamp meaning and storytelling into my characters, images.

There was a question in my mind, and he turned to me and answered it, "I am sixteen thousand years old - counting as you count." Then he turned to Nikolaus and said: "No, the Fall did not affect me nor the rest of the relationship. It was only he that I was named for who ate of the fruit of the tree and then beguiled the man and the woman with it. We others are still ignorant of sin; we are not able to commit it; we are without blemish, and shall abide in that estate always. We - " Two of the little workmen were quarreling, and in buzzing little bumblebee voices they were cursing and swearing at each other; now came blows and blood; then they locked themselves together in a life-and-death struggle. Satan reached out his hand and crushed the life out of them with his fingers, threw them away, wiped the red from his fingers on his handkerchief, and went on talking where he had left off: "We cannot do wrong; neither have we any disposition to do it, for we do not know what it is."

The mysterious stranger
Mark Twain