Matthew Daniel Innis was born in 1971 in the

                                             rural farmlands of western New Jersey.  The

                                              son of Depression Era parents, he was raised

                                               with the philosophy that many of the items you

                                                want, can best be made by hand.  His father, a

                                                 mechanic by trade, could often be found in his

                                                   spare time creating wooden toys,

                                                     building sheet-metal, scale model

                                                     antique vehicles from scratch, and

                                                   welding full-scale outdoor sculp-

                                          tures.  His mother, an immigrant from

                               the war-torn Netherlands, had once earned

                                    her living as a seamstress, and could

                                     hardly ever be found without knitting

                                  needles dancing in her hands.  With this

                                influence in the household, it was not hard

                                to imagine young Matthew would find a

                            creative outlet by which to express himself.

                        A chance encounter with a neighborhood

                    teenager who was destined to become a comic book

artist, persuaded Matt to explore art as his own means of expression.  Throughout

                                         his grade-school education, Matthew spent his nights copying

                                           images from books and magazines, and creating his own

                                             cartoon characters.  When it was time for him to graduate,

                                              encouragement from his high school

                                               art teacher led Matthew to enroll in a

                                                 full-time university art program.

                                                   Following a four year study at a

                                                    leading university, Mr. Innis

                                went on to pursue a career in the com-

mercial arts.  His jobs were varied and interesting, including

working in an animation studio, sculpting for the toy indus-

try, creating prototype costumes for action figures, and

creating cover paintings for some of the world’s largest

publishing houses.  After several years as an award

winning illustrator, however, Mr. Innis decided that to

best express his creative vision, he would need to leave

the commercial art world behind, and to concentrate on a career

of fine-art painting.

Always wanting to challenge himself and his art, Matthew began a course of studies with some of today’s greatest artists.  Amongst his mentors, Mr. Innis is proud to credit the illustrators Daniel R. Horne and Eric Peterson, and the painters Anthony J. Ryder, Juan Martinez, Jeremy Lipking, and especially Marvin Mattelson, with whom he studied the longest.

Matthew D. Innis currently resides and paints in New Jersey, only a few miles from where he grew up.  He is happy to share his life with his wife of sixteen years, Jennifer, and his sons, Kieran and Avery.