Matt Sayers was born in Cannock but spent much of his childhood in Plymouth, the port city of Devon, from which he garnered his earliest artistic impressions. He was raised to drawing and painting on his fathers knee, and as he watched his dad interpret familiar local scenes Matt decided that one day he would do the same. His childhood desire to draw and paint an enduring record of the world around him became a reality when he returned to Staffordshire with his family at the age of 14. His creative eye was moving towards the declining landscape of the mining industry.