Lincoln Artist Matthew Wright
Matt Wright is on a mission… and a tight deadline, too! The Lincoln-based architectural illustrator and artist has set himself the ambitious challenge of creating a large-format drawing of Bailgate… in one long run! With the piece due to debut in June, the last thing he needs is to be interrupted, but he’s still managed to have a chat with us to tell us how to undertake such an ambitious project
The last thing Matthew Wright needs is a distraction… so an hour-long conversation with an excited journalist isn’t ideal, but the architectural illustrator is very patient with me as I fire question after question about his ambitious project, The Papestry.
It’s like the Bayeux Tapestry, but Lincoln-based, specifically Bailgate and Steep Hill, so I suppose it’s the Bailgate Tapestry. Matt began working on the project in August last year, and the idea was to take his illustrative style and use it to create one long panoramic illustration of the buildings along Bailgate.
The piece is due to be completed by early June, when it will make its debut at The Usher Gallery, probably six metres long and about half a metre tall… so how do you go about undertaking such a task? We had to find out, even if it meant interrupting the artist when he really needed to be working!
“I was born in Lincoln, and I went to school and college here. I moved away in my 20s and went to Leeds, then London, before returning to Lincoln during lockdown.”
“I’m completely self-taught as an artist and I started drawing purely as a way to relax. Having studied music production at university, I spent my time touring with our punk band, playing a few festivals and did some session musician work in between. Drawing was a way of calming my mind: it was never meant to be a serious career!”
Just before moving back to the city, Matt had illustrated a couple of children’s books starring his cat, Nermal, hence his handle online, ‘matandhiscat.’ Living in Bailgate with his wife Roz and five-year-old son Ruben, he became fascinated with the architecture that he’d failed to appreciate in his younger days and began drawing the buildings around him.
After posting a few online, people soon began to commission him to draw their properties, he went self-employed and the rest is history. Between his commissions, Matt also created Haunted Lincoln in 2023 (updating it in 2025), featuring local buildings in the city reputed to be haunted… this was a reflection of his fascination with ghost stories.
The following year he created The Great Lincoln Pub Crawl, featuring around 30 of the city’s local public houses; a sort of ‘Tower of Babel’ of Lincoln’s boozers. Limited editions of both prints are available on Matt’s website and, together with his online illustration tuition and commissions, help to fund his passion project, The Papestry.
“I always wanted to push myself further and whilst finishing The Great Lincoln Pub Crawl I came up with the idea of one continuous drawing of Bailgate. I was inspired by The Bayeux Tapestry, which I’ve always thought was monumental, telling a story in one long piece of work.”
“There was quite a bit of planning involved, but it’s not until you actually start working on it that you realise some of the difficulties. I reasoned that much of my time would be taken up working on houses on Bailgate if I were to start from Newport Arch, so instead the Assembly Rooms is the first building to feature, and I’m working along the east side of Bailgate, with the aim of eventually reaching The Rest and the wonky lamp post where Steep Hill meets Danesgate.”
Deadlines mean Matt might have to stop earlier than that, but that’s where the piece will eventually finish, and where Nermal, who sadly died last year aged 22, will be pictured.
Next, though, is the west side of Bailgate, which is set to keep Matt busy into 2026 and 2027… assuming his patience can take it, because drawing each building takes a week, sometimes two.
Matt is usually up and in the studio from about 5am, and works into the evening after taking Ruben to school and picking him up again. To create an illustration of each building, Matt starts by taking reference photos. Each building is accurate in terms of its scale, often taking doors as a good point of reference for dimensions. Ostensibly the perspective is as if you’re standing in front of the building, although the reality is that Matt has to employ a bit of artistic license in terms of perspective. But he also chooses to include any cracked plasterwork or crumbling brickwork to ensure the representation is as true-to-life as it can be.
Another practical problem, though, is the gradual slope which of course becomes more pronounced from the Magna Carta pub down towards Steep Hill. Matt described the slope as ‘a bit of a headache’ which is probably understating matters considerably.
“I work on Arches watercolour paper, which is thick, slightly textured and very expensive,” he says. “The process is straightforward but meticulous. I photograph each building from multiple angles and then I take measurements. Next it’s a case of pencilling it out before beginning the inking stage.”
Matt hand-draws each brick, each object in the shop window and each shadow on the roofline in detail. He tries to take a break every hour, or if he feels himself losing precision. “You can’t rush it,” he says. “I think the detail is the integrity of the piece.”
“We are bombarded so much with digital work and AI stuff that can be too perfect. With this, you can see it’s human. It’s been drawn out of love and care and attention to detail.”
The artist reckons he didn’t anticipate such strong public interest, but really, it’s impossible to see why anyone would be less than impressed with the detail, the lovely boldness of the black and white pen strokes and above all, the sheer ambition of the project.
“My mum was on the bus the other day and she heard two people talking about it, which I thought was really sweet! I’ve been interviewed on BBC Look North, Radio Lincolnshire and on Calendar News and people have spotted me on Bailgate when I’ve been out. Some have even come up to me asking me not to draw things like their blinds, or asking if I can add things into the windows, so there will be a few secret details in the finished piece!”
As for what happens next, Matt isn’t quite sure yet. Since the piece will end up being six metres long, displaying it on a wall in your home will be tricky.
Some buildings have a slight space between them on the illustration to reflect actual spaces between, for example, Eastgate between the Post Office and the White Hart. There’s scope, then, for excerpts from the overall artwork, offered as limited edition prints, or for the piece to be digitised and reproduced in a giant format and shown somewhere around Lincoln.
One thing’s for sure, though, seen in its entirety, Matt’s labour of love will be incredibly impressive and very beautiful. We can’t wait to see it, so I suppose we’d better let him get on with his work!
Matthew Wright is known on Facebook as matandhiscat, and is an architectural illustrator and artist currently working to produce a large-scale illustration of Bailgate, ‘The Papestry,’ which will debut on 20th June at The Usher Gallery. Matt accepts commissions and has a limited number of his existing pieces for sale as well. The artist is also offering online illustration courses via his website too. See www.matandhiscat.bigcartel.com or find him on social media: @matandhiscat.
See the full feature in the April 2026 version of Lincolnshire Pride at https://www.pridemagazines.co.uk/lincolnshire/view-magazines?magazine=April-2026