ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS Magazine- August 2025
7 July 2025
I’m super excited to see my 40th and latest article is published in the August 25 edition of ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS magazine. Not only that.. it’s featured on the Apple News page!!! This means every painting I did last year was published by the magazine
CREATIVE MINDS at The HOLBURNE
15 June 2025
I’ve spent the last eight weeks working with group called CREATIVE MINDS which is a young men’s mental positivity group run at The Holburne. Using an ART theme, we looked at working with soft pastels, learning technique, designing and planning a piece of work, producing a colour rough and finally working on a finished piece. As you can see, the results are amazing, especially as no one had used the medium before..they will all hopefully be hung at the museum for a short period of time. It seems everyone got something from it, I instructed but we worked as a team, I’ve loved it and was quite emotional to say goodbye. I look forward to our next project in the coming weeks.
My piece was called RUNNING FOR THE MOON (White Rabbit) as I taught by becoming part of the team rather than from the front. This seemed to work very well.
MY 10 YEARS with ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS Magazine
3 May 2025
After leaving Paper House in 2012, I was faced (for the first time in my career) with absolutely no plan or prospects whatsoever. I was out of the toy and greeting card industry..even if I went freelance, I had no studio and no clients. I had a small room in my house that could become my work space, I had the remains of my FAB and Paper House studio’s in terms of books and materials and that was it. So, facing ruin … I did what anyone in their right minds would do… go on holiday!
Julian and I went to stay with my great friends (Pete and Gaynor) in Spain, basically..to lick my wounds and try to figure out my future. During this time Julian said he would buy me a computer and with some acute soul searching, I realised I should become what I had always wanted to be.. an ARTIST, and with that ..MJ/PA (Matthew Jeanes Professional Artist) was born.
I had painted my one new piece (Morning Ladies) at the end of my Paper House journey, that seemed to have gone down really well, So I would try to paint more. Peter (bless him) gave me my first commission.. and tasked me to paint something for them. Hence LA COCINA VENTANA (The Kitchen Window) was born. A big, challenging piece was from a photo I took early in the morning in their kitchen. It went really well.. the freedom of my new found passion literally rolled out of my fingers and onto the page.. I was free again.
I had followed the ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS magazine for some years, I had always seen it as the best art magazine as it covered all types of work, not just amateur painters. So, in a bold move I entered LA COCINA VENTANA into their ‘Artist of the Year’ competition in the STILL LIFE category. I had never entered anything before so I was thrilled when it came 13th. This sounds a long way down, but when you think that that was out of the whole country.. it wasn’t bad.. (with THAT said.. they could have only had 13 entries 
)
I had done some teaching in the past (Adult Art evening classes) and had put that on my entry form, the (then) editor Steve, got in touch, said he loved my painting and asked if I would consider writing an article for them, I was scratching around for any work I could find and had a lovely little portrait of a young girl to paint, I thought I would use that as a subject.. and I wrote my first article for the magazine.
The following year I entered ANOTHER piece of art for their competition, this piece was an accidental commission.. I was called out to take photographs of an elderly couple at their home for a painting, when their dog (CAMPBELL) jumped into the shot, the photo came out so well, I painted THAT picture instead of them. I entered this for Artist of the Year and THIS TIME I came runner up (4th) out of hundreds of entries. I was invited to exhibit the piece as part of the winners exhibition at the Mall galleries in London and it was covered in the magazine… the painting was on the cover with the other winners. The rest, as they say is history.. over 10 years later and working with various editors from Steve Pill to the wonderful Niki Browes, the magazine has been amazing. I’ve had two covers of my own and they have inspired me to take chances and keep painting when I may not have done so without an incentive . It’s not the most lucrative work.. but I have appreciated them and for 10 years and 39 articles later.. (including this months June 2025 edition), Hopefully I can get it to 40!
MY OWN WORK has been published.
Thank you for that and your impact on my work and life.
Incidentally, my own dog, Poppy’, has featured in SIX articles over the years (paint your pet and others) which surely makes her the MOST featured dog in the magazine’s history.🤣
DOWNTON, MAXWELL, FASHION and ME!
21 April 2025
As a young boy I knew I wanted to be an artist partly because of the movies, I ADORED films, that escape to anywhere and any time, to me.. was magical, but my art dream was not so much the excitement of the film itself.., but because of the movie posters that gloriously promised the next thrilling adventure in the cinema foyer. I was obsessed. Those stunningly painted pieces of art showing us James Bond surrounded by a bevvy of beauties while holding his gun pointed suggestively upward while he flew skyward wearing a hi-tech jet pack. Shirley Mclaine cheekily looking over her tattooed shoulder promising the thrilling new start to the 70’s (Sweet Charity). Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood ‘swinging’ Jean Seberg in their Arms (Paint Your Wagon). A host of stars trying to escape an exploding wave in an upside down ballroom (The Poseidon Adventure), the fear of a loan shark creeping upward to an innocent swimmer (Jaws).. the beauty of the hidden moments in film that you could decipher by studying the jigsaw thrill in the art..the list is endless.Bob Peak, Robert McGuinness, Mort Kunstler, Roger Kassel, Drew Struzan, Richard Amsel and Rene Gruau’ (fashion icon), these were my art heroes…outside of my dad of course.
Years later this passion would stand me in good stead for my most audacious pitch. Working as a new creative director at Paper House in 2008, part of my job was to source new ideas for new greeting card ranges..this was all very NEW to ME, so, after an initial panic (and cold sweat)..I thought ‘calm down’ , take a moment..and target what I know.DAVID DOWNTON was (and is) the best fashion artist in the world. His work was everywhere, magazines, books, shops, As (fashion) artist in residence for VANITY FAIR, his beautiful watercolours and graphic cut paper/ink paintings would focus on just part of his model (an eye, eyebrow and a scarlet lip) while using a striking use of negative space which was instantly recognisable.I thought..I shall start here. I knew his work would make an amazing art (card) range with a stylish design intention, using clever cropping coupled with delicate varnishes, flitters and foils…this was a solution already locked in my head. I found a number for his studio on his website, held my breath..and called him.. to my absolute shock.. HE answered. I was now talking to one of my art heroes…. Breathe….
I tried to remain cool as I pitched my idea .. he seemed dismissive and flattered at the same time. A languid, soft spoken voice.. he thought about my request.. he didn’t say no, but said he’d meet me at his studio in Brighton to discuss further.. WOW!.. not only had I spoken to him.. I was going to meet him. (Holy- absolute-Fuck!)I arrived in Brighton early (9am for an 11 O’clock meeting), wearing a very cool brown Paul Smith suit with a hot pink pinstripe and a bronze Kenzo tie, I thought I looked serious and fashionable enough to mean business. He answered the intercom himself and I entered his studio with light pouring through the windows (the only thing missing for me, was the heavenly chorus of an angelic choir). There were no other staff, just him, which surprised me. He was effortlessly cool, with floppy, greying hair, glasses balanced on his nose and dressed in monotone blacks, white and greys. No fuss.. just STYLE. Work was all around the studio and I was trying hard not to OVER enthuse about absolutely EVERYTHING.
He was happy to accept my compliments and excitement but generally diffusing it with self deprecating humour or saying ‘that old thing.. hate that!’ to a masterpiece. One job stood out.. the printing proofs of a fashion magazine he was writing, Bob Peak, Rob McGuinness and Rene Gruau’ were all there and I jumped in with my preferred subject ..he was quietly impressed, The conversation then blossomed .. moving from fashion to art, onto movie icons.. from Sophia, to Anita, to Bardot and Deneuve ..many of whom he’d painted (but hilariously not my preferred ‘Barbra’)
By the end of the meeting he said… “come back and show me some ideas”… I left the meeting as high as that chorus of singing angels. Our future (Henrie award winning) DOWNTON art range was about to be born.Over the next six months.. I had many more visits to Brighton, Each time choosing art for the range while David would show me new pieces and proofs of his books and magazines .. I was a more than willing puppy, but I was also able to talk and engage with this historic fashion/ movie language.
When his new magazine ‘POURQUI PAS? was published in 2008. David invited myself and my new beau (Julian) to the launch at an exclusive hotel in London. We arrived dressed in our very best, Julian was used to mixing with high society from his days as estate manager for properties such as Blenheim, Hidcote and Hanbury Hall, hosting everyone from Queens to presidents. Though we did feel we should join the waiters and cater the event rather than attend as guests, I found it VERY hard not to ask people for their coats! The very highest echelons of London fashion elite were there.. Ditta Von Teese appeared and stopped the party with her burlesque beauty, Erin O’Connor arrived late, in a glorious, voluminous gown with a small white pirate hat, she was flustered having been dropped at the wrong corner by her taxi and ran across the square in what could have been a scene of Audrey Hepburn in SABRINA. David, in his signature black and white chic, cooly greeted each one as a friend would greet a neighbour or good friend.
The big ENTRANCE of the night was reserved for the stunning supermodel, Carmen Dell’Orefice (then at 75), She arrived fashionably late, looking utterly breathtaking, she had a short, eccentric fellow on her arm, with a waistcoat, bow tie, circle glasses and waxed moustache..(he looked like he had stepped out of the royal court of Chitty, Chitty, Bang ,Bang)..David greeted her like ‘a best mate’, she took a glass of champagne, left her jittery beau and joined the party.Julian and I nonchalantly stayed together (and tried not to top up the drinks)..but were kindly included by David, being introduced to one breathtaking icon after another. Though I did turn my back only to see Julian heavily in conversation with the quietly formidable CARMEN. She had taken a shine to him, and they chatted away as he reached for and gave her another glass of Champagne with a ‘clink’. Later I said to him ‘’you were getting on well with Carmen, What were you talking about?”..he said she had asked him …” WHO , exactly..was that ‘funny little man’ I arrived with?”…Julian had no clue.. but relished the THEATRE of it all. I thought it was hilarious.
As Julian’s daughter (Felicity) was then about to start a fashion degree at St Martin’s in London, she became a successful conversation point.. and by the end of the evening we had a copy of the book/magazine signed to her by the cream of London’s fashion elite. We had held our own and been part of an event never to be repeated and never to be forgotten.
After I left Paper House to become a freelance artist again, the relationship between the company and David broke down. However, I was asked by the NEW creative director, to come up with a fashion range of my own. I certainly wasn’t going to copy David Downton, but tried to call on my own art heroes and passion for inspiration. I had no money for beautiful models so based my art on magazines and glamorous people, tweaking and changing them to make them my own.
Years before, an art agent had told me, I couldn’t be all things to everyone with my art offer so, would have to re invent myself for any specific subject.. with these words echoing in my ear..MAXWELL: Nom Du Jour was born (named after my grandfather).
I was passionate about the work (within my obvious limitations), I designed a card range (called FABULOUS..Not MY title), a website, another, more ‘art’ based card range, select images were bought by a group of hotels (for room art). I had a line of beautiful art prints.. and I also had a big exhibition as part of BATH IN FASHION in 2012. Not bad for a novice.
I did see David one more time.. he mentioned Paper House had got somebody else to do some art after their relationship had faltered over ‘the money’. I didn’t have the heart to say it was me. It was certainly nice, even for a short while..
to be ‘In FASHION’
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS Magazine, June 2025
13 April 2025
My newest article (People Watching) is now a sensational six sided feature showing how I painted this complex piece of art, in the June 2025 edition of Artists & Illustrators magazine (Britains foremost art magazine). The painting is my watercolour, THE ARTISTS OF WIMBORNE (Paul). I painted it last year after we attended the PLEIN AIR Art Fair in Wimborne, It WAS timed to celebrate and promote THIS Years Art Fair but that has now been postponed till May 2026 to tie in with another celebration. Hopefully I will be able to attend and add a new painting to continue the theme of ‘Artists at work’ at this amazing festival.
The LOOKOUT by Matthew Haydn Jeanes
13 April 2025
As I haven’t painted at all this year, I thought I would do a little practice piece just to keep my hand in.
It’s called The LOOKOUT, I thought it was a sweet picture I took at New Year. Now I need to get my act together to paint some bigger new pieces.
NEW POSTCARDS: Looking Out & The Straw Hat
30 September 2024
THE STRAW HAT by Matthew Haydn Jeanes
29 September 2024
I’m calling this my COVID painting as I was stuck home for a week and after initially feeling awful I needed to do something to occupy my quarantine. I liked this photograph by Adam Brown (at Orlebar Brown) and thought it would make a very nice painting. So this is a folio piece called STRAW HAT by Matthew Haydn Jeanes.
Watercolour on paper.
NEW POSTCARDS- The MENU and JULIE
17 August 2024
THE MENU by Matthew Haydn Jeanes
13 August 2024
It’s interesting where the inspiration for a painting comes from, I firmly believe the subject finds YOU not the other way round. Hence, may I introduce my new piece. THE MENU by Matthew Haydn Jeanes – watercolour on paper. August 2024. I feel this is not really a PORTRAIT but a MOMENT.. the light (back lit, the reflection of the garden outside, the front light from the pub, the mixed shadows on his face), the contemplation, the drink. Taking that all important moment to decide. Interestingly, it was far more complicated than some of my most recent pieces.
I hope you like it
