Marisha Matthews is a South Australian based visual artist, working in mostly in oils. Her practice draws attention to the fall of light on objects with focus on transparency, surface and reflection. Her application of paint is both painterly and textured but also slick and shiny. Her paintings are lush and rich creations from everyday life including glass and silver objects but also ordinary garden plants and native species. Succulent plants, leaves, fruit and blossoms are tr. . . Read More >
Marisha Matthews is a South Australian based visual artist, working in mostly in oils. Her practice draws attention to the fall of light on objects with focus on transparency, surface and reflection. Her application of paint is both painterly and textured but also slick and shiny. Her paintings are lush and rich creations from everyday life including glass and silver objects but also ordinary garden plants and native species. Succulent plants, leaves, fruit and blossoms are treated generously with paint revealing architectural forms, through light and shadow.
Marisha has painted since childhood and full time since 2005. She both has lived, travelled worked in the UK, Iran, and mainland China. She worked for many years in the building industry and specialised in feature art, Roman style mosaics, and paint finishes in Sydney creating feature artworks in large houses and commercial interiors. She recently worked on the restoration of Ayres House, restoring elaborate painted ceilings.
Marisha graduated from Adelaide Central School of Art with Honours in 2019. In 2020 she completed a years residency at Pembroke School in The Balnaves Enterprise Hub, and a residency at St Ignatius College in 2023. She is currently artist in residence at Loreto College and since 2022 has been the curator of one of South Australias largest group exhibition, Loreto Contemporary Art.
She has worked in art departments in film on and off over the past 25 years, including as the artist on the feature film, Hotel Mumbai, for which she created many of the artworks, and architectural elements which appear on screen.In 2025 she painted backdrops for the Netflix series My Brilliant Career. During 2020 Marisha completed a major commission for the Botanica Apartments, Glenside featuring flowering and fruit of magnolias in three panels, and a further five works for each level of the building.
In 2019 Matthews won the exhibition prize at the annual Friends of the South Australian School of Art exhibition for her three works from the kitchen sinks series, Heptomany, Hydromancy, and Effeuiller la Marguerite. She has twice been a finalist in the Adelaide Park Lands Prize, and has received recognition for her work in other art prizes.