Maggie Matthews was born in Blaina, a small mining village in South Wales in 1964. She studied Fine Art at Newport College of Art and Design followed by a degree at Exeter College of Art and in 1988 moved to West Cornwall where she still lives and works.

“I have always had a love of nature and spending time outdoors. So, it felt only natural to become a landscape artist. I often walk the coastal path, I love the vast expanse of sea and sky, here the weather is changeable, the winters are bleak and exposed, the summers can be warm and dry. The native wild flowers thrive, Bluebells give way to carpets of Sea Pinks. I always strive to capture these rich colours and textures. As I walk, I’m drawn into looking at the detail in the landscape, making close-up sketches of flower petals or seed pods. When I look through my sketch books I find drawings of shapes and forms, studies of plants set against turquoise seas or orange lichen shinning out through foggy damp grey skies. At home I surround myself with collections of flowers,leaves, pebbles and shells, all important finds. I’m fascinatedby the patterns in nature, how a single petal is replicated to form the whole flower. The way the sea erodes the sharp edges off a pebble to give it it’s unique shape. There is beauty in the order of complex patterns but also a melancholic appeal in the impermanence of all things. With the passage of time we move through the seasons, cycles of life, death and rebirth”.
Maggie Matthews.

Selected Exhibitions.

2016 Light and Colour, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2015 Drawing Upon Nature, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2014 Muse, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2013 Shaped by Nature, Hilton Fine Art, Bath, Somerset.
2012 Up Close, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2011 Nature, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2010 Bloom, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2009 Natural Forms, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2008 Memento, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2007 Beach, Cornwall Contemporary, Cornwall.
2006 The Great Atlantic Art Gallery, Falmouth, Cornwall.
2005 The Great Atlantic Art Gallery, Falmouth, Cornwall.
            The Great Atlantic Art Gallery, Monmouth, Wales.
2004 The Great Atlantic Art Gallery, St Just, Cornwall.
2003 Drawn from Nature, The Great Atlantic Art Gallery, Cornwall.
2002 City Gallery, Thompsons, London.
            The Bigger Picture, Badcocks Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall.
2001 Cardiff Bay Arts Trust, Cardiff, Wales.