The Studio of William Matthews

During the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in the spring, William Matthews was spending a lot of time in his studio, and he didn’t mind it a bit. His custom-built studio, which sits behind his home in Denver, Colorado, has always been his sanctuary. It’s his personal space, a place where he can be completely alone and paint in peace.

Usually, however, Matthews has appointments to keep at his gallery and office in Denver’s RiNo Art District. That 12,000-foot space includes a woodshop, a frame shop, meeting areas, a public gallery, and his office space. He almost always has projects to work on and people to meet there, but that changed several months ago.

At 70, Matthews knows that he’s in the more vulnerable age for contracting the virus, so the usually active artist was in his studio more often than he previously had been. “These days, I’m much more reluctant to go anywhere,” he says. “I do still go downtown, but not every day—and I spend less than an hour when I go. I check in with everyone—we all wear masks and stay six feet apart—and then I skedaddle.”

Read the entire article in the July/August 2020 issue.