Jeanne Maze is an Anglo French artist. She grew up in London, where she attended the Lycée Français and developed a passion for art through her grandfather, the French painter Paul Maze. She studied at the Byam Shaw Art School in London, followed by research work on Chinese art through the archives of the British & Victoria and Albert Museums. She launched a successful career as a muralist specialising in Chinoiserie and Eastern decorative art working in Europe and North America. With a young family she changed her style to more figurative work in gouache and oil, with exhibitions in London and the West of England.

In 2006 she moved to her family's home in South West France where she evolved her style to work in pastel as well as oil and gouache. From her travels she has produced series on Cuba, Morocco and Sri Lanka and now works with the superb collection of pastels she inherited from her grandfather.

A selection of her work is now available online.

“My grandfather was introduced to pastel by Édouard Vuillard, who took him to Dr Roche, the pastel merchant in Paris. “Taken by a God to meet God”, was how he had described the experience. From that moment on, his work had been primarily in pastels.
The vast collection of pastel colours that he accumulated over the years were kept in wooden chest boxes with slim drawers. Each drawer held rows of pastel chalks carefully placed in separate slots. Each chalk had a paper wrapping with a number, for reference when reordering. Roche had 1600 colours in its range at that time. My grandfather must have had pretty much all of them. He produced paintings full of movement, colour, and light with these exceptional chalks.

When he died in 1979 he left me his pastel boxes. They stayed unopened and carefully stored until 2020 when, at last, I took up pastel myself. Like my grandfather, I also have become spellbound by this captivating medium. From this moment on, my work is primarily in pastels.”

— Jeanne