The last week of innocence

Matthew J. Price summoned memories of his childhood when creating his new collection of paintings. But that doesn’t mean it’s a show for kids.

The Aliso Viejo artist, whose “New Paintings” closes this weekend at the OMC Gallery for Contemporary Art at Old World Village, grew up reading “Snow White,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and other classic tales. What he remembers about them most, though, is not their aura of innocence but their themes of danger. The Grimm brothers and other fairy-tale authors, he said, devised their stories primarily as cautionary tales.

“It was to really hit home those messages and morals to children — that you’ve got to stay away from those strangers,” Price said.

While only a handful of the two dozen paintings depict recognizable stories, including “Riding Hood” and “Alice in Wonderland,” the show is built around what Price sees as the central theme of most children’s literature: the innocent set adrift in a perilous world.

Each of the paintings spotlights large-eyed, youthful female figures, with settings ranging from an idyllic waterfall to a witches’ commune.

In nearly all the pictures, the subjects look straight at the viewer. Price said he chose female figures because he believed they expressed innocence and fragility better than males.

While Price said he expects to get mixed reactions for his paintings, at least one of the pieces struck a chord with a recent visitor to the gallery.

Owner Rolf Goellnitz said a woman bought a portrait of a bare-chested girl the moment she saw it, on the condition that she could take it home with her right away.

Goellnitz said such a sale was rare, as most buyers are content to wait until a show closes to bring home the artwork they purchase, but he was happy to make an exception.

“It was a very intense portrait,” he said. “It was a very melancholic and almost yawning expression. I think that’s what she liked about it.”

Goellnitz sought out Price for a show after seeing his exhibit at another Huntington Beach gallery two years ago.

It wasn’t the first time Price has been courted for his work.

In addition to exhibiting in Los Angeles, Laguna Beach and elsewhere, he’s provided book covers for a French publisher, but his origins as an artist were much more humble.

Price took only a single drawing class at Saddleback College, he said, and taught himself most of his technique.

Three years after he started drawing, his persistence paid off with a show at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana.

“I didn’t know how to draw or paint or anything,” Price said. “I just had the desire to do it.”

Price, who works during the day as a clerk for OC Public Libraries, never uses models for his images, but he sometimes doesn’t have to look far for inspiration.

One of his favorite pieces in “New Paintings” depicts a girl pulling a wagon full of bones while a mysterious creature with a suitcase walks behind her — an image that Price saw in a nighttime reverie.

“A lot of my ideas just come from daydreaming,” he said. “And some of them come from dreams themselves.”

If You Go

What: “New Paintings” by Matthew J. Price

When: 2 to 6 p.m. today through Saturday. Closing reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday

Where: OMC Gallery for Contemporary Art, Old World Village, 7561 Center Ave. No. 32, Huntington Beach

CONTACT: (714) 421-0476 or www.omc-llc.com