Matilda Harrison was born in Dorset and moved to London in the 1980s to study at St Martin’s School of Art. She works as an illustrator, principally in book publishing and completes private portrait commissions all whilst pursuing her own painting practice.

Matilda is a modern surrealist and narrative painter. She depicts a world where giant birds and insects share centre stage with people, where women have feet that are hooves and babies that are beetles. Subverting the normal, playing with scale and expectation she uses acute draughtsmanship and meticulous detail to demonstrate her love of the absurd and the beautiful.

Looking at the world through a glass filmed with fairy tales, Shakespeare’s stories and Victorian photographs, these images and narratives blend with her lifelong love of birds and animals and of her sister. Relationship bonds are central to Matilda’s current work; between mother and child, twins and between lovers. In particular the connection between sisters forms the bedrock of her most recent paintings.