Matthew Alexander was born in 1953, educated at Simon Langton School Canterbury and subsequently at Canterbury College of Art foundation, Maidstone College of Art B.A. Hons and the University of London PGCE His father Chris Alexander (1926-82) the noted artist and lecturer has been the main influence on his painting. After graduating in 1974/75, Matthew and his wife Patricia, moved back to his home town of Margate where he secured a position teaching art at a Secondary School whilst at the same time running courses in painting at the local Adult Education Centres. It was during this time, working at the side of his father, teacher and mentor that he began to paint and exhibit landscapes which found ready buyers and this helped to convince him of the need to resign from teaching to pursue his love of painting.
In the summer of 1981 with a growing family of three children he made the difficult and brave decision to leave the comfort and security of the teaching profession and commence on the uncertain journey to becoming a self-employed artist. He was soon exhibiting his paintings in many of the major galleries in the South of England and encouraged by strong demand for his work began to submit to major exhibitions in London including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal Watercolour Society, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters and The Royal Society of British Artists to which he was elected a member in 1985. With an ever increasing demand for his paintings he set up his own publishing enterprise in 1986 producing high quality limited edition prints of his watercolours and the company Matthew Alexander Publications became extremely successful supplying galleries and print shops across the country. His English landscape prints were purchased for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to furnish the walls of British embassies throughout the world. In the late eighties Matthew became involved in an exciting project with his artist / brother Gregory when they managed to secure a generous sponsorship deal with KPMG in association with the Catto Gallery London to travel and record in paintings and drawings their impressions of the then twelve European Community countries. The project culminated in an exhibition in 1992 at the Bankside Gallery in London and was subsequently toured through several of the European capitals.
