Jenny Matthews was born in Montreal Canada in 1964 and moved to Edinburgh as a small child. Showing incredible talent at an early age, she was accepted to study Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA). Under the tutorage of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder (who taught her Botanical Illustration at Edinburgh's Royal Botanical Garden), John Houston and Ann Oram amongst others. Graduating in 1986 with a BA ( Hons) in Drawing and Painting, Jenny is the Head of the Scottish branch of the International Watercolor Society (IWS Scotland).
With a well-deserved reputation as one of the best watercolourists in the country, Jenny has held hugely successful exhibitions throughout UK and abroad for over 30 years. Winning the London Royal Watercolour Society annual prize in 2007 and their Exhibition Award in 2015, Jenny's International reputation was secured when she was nominated for the International Watercolour prize ' Marche d'Acqua 2016' in Fabriano, Italy. Jenny also took part in the Salon International de l'Aquarelle, St Yrieix la Perche, France 2016 and she led the Scottish Group of Artists in Fabrianoin Acquarello, Italy. More recently, Jenny was Scottish co-representative with Angus McEwan in Fabrianoin Acquarello 2018 and its leader in 2019.
Gallerist comment - ‘I've learnt about watercolours more recently and find the delicate nature of the medium beautiful. One can see Dame Elizabeth Blackadder's influences in Jenny's wonderful paintings and, as Giles Sutherland was quoted in 2017,"Technically Matthews is brilliant".'