About Us

MacAvon Miniatures exhibits and sells original miniature works of art by artist Jenny Chapman. MacAvon Miniatures is part of MacAvon, a business partnership formed by Nigel and Jenny Chapman in 1996.

Artist Jenny Chapman

I’m a professional artist who studied for over five years at two of Britain’s best art colleges (see the biography below) and I now specialize in miniature and small paintings, especially watercolours. I’m also a dolls house enthusiast: at present I have three dolls houses from different eras and at different stages of renovation. As you can see in the photo, they live among the chaos which is politely called “the artist’s studio”, otherwise known as my work room, where I do most of my miniature painting. Nigel and I work from home in a remote area of the wild West Highlands of Scotland, where the scenery is a constant inspiration for art work but the wind almost never stops blowing and the rain only occasionally stops raining…

I used to work at “normal” size, but things changed suddenly for me in mid-2007 when I fell ill with viral meningitis. During the long period of gradual convalescence my interest in dolls houses was re-awakened. This led me to think about working in miniature myself, and once I tried it I was hooked.

Best quality for everyone

Artists are rarely well off so – as I’m also a collector myself – I know that not everyone can afford the things they’d like to have. I therefore try to create a wide range of collectors’ items to suit a wide range of budgets. I like to make beautiful things – as best I can – and hope there will be something for everyone. I love art materials and I love painting. I only use the best artists’ quality materials in my work, so you can be sure that no matter how low (or high) the selling price, the quality will always be the best I can achieve. This means that unlike work made with cheap or student-quality materials, the colours in my work shouldn’t fade or change, the finishes (like varnishes) shouldn’t alter with age, the paper is acid-free and shouldn’t deteriorate, and so on. Nothing lasts forever, of course, but I use the best available.

Do get in touch

It’s always lovely to hear from other collectors, enthusiasts and artists. If you have any questions, would like to arrange to buy something, or are interested in a special commission, please use the contact form to get in touch. I’ve taught painting, drawing and animation to all ages from age 6 to adult, and am always happy to give advice as best I can, so if you have any questions, just ask. I hope to be adding some tutorial pages to this site before long.

A wee bit of biography

I’ve been painting all my life – and I’m a professional artist now – but it has taken me quite a while to get to this point. Like many young people I made a complete shambles of the early part of my “career”. I dropped out of school at 17 and spent the next few years working and completing my “A” levels (including art and art history) in my spare time. Although painting was always my favourite subject and pastime, when I was a teenager I didn’t understand that there were such things as real art colleges that real people could go to, and nobody bothered to tell me. I only knew about universities, so at the age of 21 I went to the University of Leeds to study Art History and Philosophy and then went on to post-graduate study in more Art History at St. Andrews University . But all I did at university was look at paintings rather than make them and it felt all wrong. I did learn a lot of art history, however, which has proved very useful.

Anyway, I got so fed up that I abandoned that academic course and for the next ten years or so I did this and that, but nothing that seemed right. Then one day in the early 1990s I realised that I would just have to start again and go to art college: it was the only solution. We were living in London at the time, and I managed to get admitted to the Foundation Course at Camberwell College of Arts (now part of the University of the Arts, London) as a mature student, when they had a few extra places left during “clearing”. I didn’t know just how lucky I was – the Camberwell foundation course is considered to be one of the very best in the UK, but I didn’t know that when I applied. That lucky break was the beginning of a new direction which I’ve followed ever since. From Camberwell I went on to Edinburgh College of Art where I completed a B.A. (Hons) degree and was then awarded a scholarship to go on to postgraduate study which led to my M.Des. degree. I’m still connected with Edinburgh College of Art as a visiting lecturer.

Although I’ve always loved painting I specialized for a while in experimental animation, and my short films won prizes in various film festivals around the world. But it’s difficult to do very much with animation as a self-employed artist, and I kept coming back to painting, although I also do other work to make ends meet, mainly helping to write college textbooks. (For further info about the films, books etc. please visit www.macavon.co.uk.) Once I re-discovered the world of dolls houses from the point of view of an adult collector and enthusiast I knew I had found a fascinating new outlet and context for painting and so I’m now concentrating mainly on creating miniature works of art.