The PNW Art Collection
When I moved to Alaska and experienced Anchorage with young eyes, I thought, “This is the place for me.” Years later, I moved to Honolulu. It also had all the things I wanted: mountains, ocean, and a big city to play in. Honolulu was grander than Anchorage and… it was tropical!
I ended up moving from Hawaii there despite how beautiful it was. I was aiming at NYC, but somehow landed in Seattle. Then, WOW. Seattle and WA blew me away…
“Reviving Twilight” - What Seattle would look like if the power were out. Read more here. (opens in new window)
Perhaps it is the native creativity baked into the earth here or, maybe it was just the timing; my creativity and my art launched after arriving in the PNW.
I arrived in Washington after a year of traveling followed by months of job hunting in NYC in the fall of 2014. Since then, my portfolio has been filling up with works that I am proud of, works that have received recognition by the likes of National Geographic, TED, ABC News, and others. My TED Talk, Beautiful Things That Are Gone and it’s corresponding works are a collection that I am particularly proud of.
This 10-minute talk is all about works from the PNW. Each gone. See all the works in the collection here. Or enjoy the talk while you scroll 🍻
So, I won’t bore you with more blah blah blah. This place is special and if you’re reading this, you likely know this already.
The Washington Art Collection below is comprised of my favorite WA and PNW artworks. Each image opens in a light box and a link will take you to each photograph’s story with examples of how it might be displayed in a home. You can reach me directly here or on any of the microsites on my website.
Keep Washington Beautiful
A Gathering Of Quiet Forms
This was the last coastline I photographed before leaving the Pacific Northwest.
What drew me in wasn’t just the sea stacks—it was the atmosphere. The way the mist softened the distance. The way each rock formation revealed itself in layers, one behind the other, like memory stepping forward through fog.
The composition is centered. Grounded. Breathy. The kind of stillness that doesn’t demand attention but holds it anyway.
A true metaphor for not judging character by what is on the outside, Japanese Maples take my breath away each time I crawl beneath one.
See more of “The Scarlet Tree” here.
“River Run”
“We skate on an intense nothingness we do not see because we see nothing else. ”
— John Updike
The ground we trod on is beyond precious, yet it is so ubiquitous that it is impossible to keep at the forefront of our mind. I know that I don’t think of it too often. Yet, everything we have, every wonder, every piece of trash, all came from the ground beneath our feet.
We stood in the glacial run-off river… (read more)
Endurance
Believe it or not, I photographed this lion in Oregon at the Big Cat Sanctuary. This will forever be the most unique piece (for me) to come out of the PNW.
What ENDURANCE means to me:
Persistence through Uncertainty
Resilience against Rejection
Adaptation and Growth
Commitment to Craft
Read More about my experience with the lions
Find something is this collection you love?
The best way to connect with me is through text: 808.321.8643.
Second is email using the form at the bottom of this article.
The Witness
A meditation on solitude, self-dialogue, and quiet resilience
The Witness stands alone in a field of color, gnarled and weathered by time. Its crooked limbs reach upward—not triumphantly, but insistently. There is strength in its posture, though not the kind that boasts. It mirrors the presence of the Other: a familiar, often adversarial voice within. A witness. A challenger. A companion. This tree, like that inner figure, does not disappear in times of joy or suffering. It remains—scarred, rooted, and unshakably present. Read More
“Edge of Solace” - 50% sold out
Edge of Solace — This scene is as much a painting as it is a photograph. It is a scene I’ve longed for but never found. Finally, I allowed my creativity to rend reality. Edge of Solace is an idea I’ve carried with me for a long time but I feel that it was Seattle and the Northwest that gave me the inspiration and the building blocks to bring it to life. All the elements in Edge of Solace were captured in Seattle and Mercer Island making it a true work of the Pacific Northwest and … (read more)
The color and black and white versions of this scene on Rialto Beach (now destroyed) are a moment split in two. Each edition is its own image. The light striking the top of this seastack are the first rays the New Year. You can hear the story of these photograph in my TED Talk above or by clicking here.
Wild Horses - If a horse could draw god, it would draw and awesome horse. Captured in Vantage during the most powerful aurora storm in a decade. read more…
From The Beginning, I call these “cloud islands.” When I consider the comfortable isolation I seek in photographs, I can’t imagine anything more singular than a mountain peak made an island by an ocean of clouds. Being alone on a peak above the clouds is … read more.
Can you imagine being the last of your tribe to stand against the winter? A Sun Story - read more.
Wandering Star - The more intimately I share the traumas and trials of my past the more I discover how common some of the most trying moments and experiences of my life have been. Where I expected to be an outcast I discovered a community of souls … read more and see examples
I wasn’t idle while I waited for the moon to set between the seastacks on the right (below). This 8-min photograph is titled Halo … see more
The Fire of Day. There’s a moment, at the edge of each beautiful day, when the fires of the sun give their last breath of brilliance. The light dances with such passion that the breath of all the souls in witness catch and flare alongside it.
Sometimes, we have to watch the sky; other times, it’s the horizon.
The shore, like a magic mirror that reflects the best in us, shone with the retreating fires of day as I watched in reverence.
I named the piece Moonlight Sonata after Beethoven's composition. He has a piece in it titled Composing by Moonlight. Truthfully though, my favorite pieces from this collection are Beethoven's Despair (which should be paired with Fur Elise), and Beethoven's three part Decent into Madness. These four pieces have always made me think of the stars.
I spent most of the night looking for compositions and waiting for the moon to set so that I could capture the first star trails of the year on Jan 1st, 2015. When it came time, at 4AM, I could hardly be pulled away from the fire. I kinda knew that the moon might set between these sea stacks but wasn't sure … see more
The American Dream
The title came to me the moment I turned and saw the room inside this dilapidated structure, and the view beyond, on a middle-of-no-where road through central Oregon farmland.
I imagine this scene inspires many different and competing ideas on what the American Dream is, where we are, as Americans, on the journey toward that dream, and what we must do to achieve this end.
One thing is certain; one thing that we can both agree on; is that we have not yet achieved the dream. Read More about this 1/1 piece here.
Speaking of compositions involving the moon:
Moon Over Mt Baker
I knew the moon was going to set behind Mt. Baker during the Perseids in August, 2016. I didn’t know that it would crown the mountain peak on it’s way down! I don’t think I’ve been in awe for as long as I was that night before or since. I captured every moment of it’s time atop the peak, when the meteor blazed across the sky I knew I had something special.
See in-home examples and more detail here.
Adrift- The surface was smooth and calm as a worked pane of glass. Not even a ripple marred the surface of the canal. For a moment I thought I could skip a rock across the surface and it would just slide the width of the canal and deposit on the far bank, out of sight. see more
The Last Light - There are no redos on first impressions, first kisses, or the first light of the new year. There won’t be another chance to make the most of this day. Every year I make documenting the first light of the new year a serous endeavor. Some years it doesn't work out. When I planned this photograph I knew that the tide and the seas had to be just right. The weather had to be perfect and the skies, way off on the distant horizon, had to allow the light through. Many things have to align for the perfect capture. When I watch this curtain of light sweep across the stone for an audience of one I felt as though the entire earth favored for a moment and that was enough. see more
Multnomah Falls - One of the most iconic scenes of Oregon. I chose to be there in late and in the rain to get the space to myself. It was incredible. Read More
Field of Dreams - one of the pieces from my up and coming collection “Slightly More Beautiful Than The Truth. It doesn’t have a dedicated site of it’s own yet.
Avendasora Leaf - I visited this wonderful Japanese maple tree four times before I found the perfect conditions to make my photograph … read more
Dance- also part of the Beautiful Things That Are Gone collection
Concordia- latin for the broken harmony that arrested me.
read more
Rising- As the sun gave color to the horizon I began feeling the sense of the indiscernible forest fade around me. Shadows deepened as they wrestled with the changing light and the warmth of the rising sun wrestled with the cool of the fleeting night. I imagine it in cinematic fashion as I write. The forest enveloping me was in a moment of change; the magic that enchants a forest at night was quickly, quietly, beautifully, evaporating with the rising sun. see more…
Chasing the Leaf - Its like losing the perfect leaf. You’re running through the forest. You just had her in your hand, twirling her by the stem; a more perfect leaf has never fallen from a tree. Why should one such as this fall? You want to make it last forever, you set the leaf down to reach for your camera. The wind takes her and you’re running through the forest. Wildly you snatch leaves from the air… read more…
Chasing the Shadow- It’s a lot like chasing the shadow of a cloud on a long desert highway. Its like a grade' school bully holding your juice high above your head. That shadow quenches you, you chase it, and the cloud… read more…
Her- a waterscape captured under the lights of Seattle’s Great Wheel. read more…
Ice Cave With A View - Also a featured image in the TED Talk- Beautiful Things That Are Gone this is one of the photographs I am most proud of. You can read more about it here.
Shriners Light - The entire climb up to Shriners Peak was shrouded in fog. At times the fog was so thick that I couldn't see ten paces in front of me. Other times the mist… read more…
The Aurora on Lake Wenatchee is one of my favorite memories and adventures. I’m honored to have experienced it before I left the North West. This piece hasn’t made it into my official portfolio yet but I think it may one day. I would be remiss to not include it in this collection.
Tree of Fire - when I think about the delicate balance this 80+ year-old maple maintained for decades my awe turns to sadness knowing that it’s splendor was cut short. The Tree of Fire was destroyed in a storm in 2018. Read more about it here.
Thank you for spending your time looking at my work. The works above are very special to me. It felt like there were so many as I assembled this article but I have scores more that are great but did not quite make it into my portfolio. You can find those on my Instagram, @realjasonmatias.
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Did something catch your eye?
All of the above photographs are limited edition artworks that you can collect. Each link takes you to that artwork’s microsite. You can contact me from any of those pages or via the form below. You can also text me anytime at 808.321.8643.
-Jason