Michael was a steelworker prior to undertaking a Foundation Art course during the 1980’s in his home city of Cardiff, South Wales. After finishing the Foundation course Michael continued to build a career as a fine artist, entering various competitions e.g. the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the Hunting Art prize and the John Laing Landscape competition. He was shortlisted for the B.P. Portrait award in the 1990’s. Michael has exhibited his work in various galleries, as one man or mixed shows, across the UK and France. He participated in a mixed show with Pierre Soulages and others (Galerie Marie-Helen Bou, 10 Year Anniversary mixed show) in 1994 Decazeville, France.
Michael has work in collections in the USA, France and the UK.
Michael has lived in both the UK and France, currently residing in Dorset.
Michael’s influences include European Expressionism and Fauvism and his love of music, both of which exude colour, emotions, forcefulness and dynamism.
In the early years of Michael’s career, he was influenced and encouraged by both Anthony Goble and Mick Blackburn, fellow Welsh artists. They provided support and inspiration, guiding him with some of his initial exhibitions.
The ‘art’ of painting for Michael is in the exploration of shape, form, texture, perspective and colour. He demonstrates a natural understanding and skilled use in all these areas. A simple, mundane scene is considered and the details revealed in a new light that challenges the cursory glance that people often give them.
Oil is his chosen medium, applied with brushes and palette knives, enabling him to give life and texture with his “impasto” work. The process of direct painting wet on wet enables Michael to project feeling and life into his pieces.
Michael generally listens to music whilst painting, sometimes naming a painting after a segment of music.
He works in small format through to large.
The paintings are inspired by his reaction to the natural world which we all too easily walk past and ignore. They include landscapes and the mundane scenes of everyday life in an interior setting, from which he produces natura morta or nature morte as we know it. As his art developed, Michael explored the human form and painted portraits before subsequently exploring human facial features through the medium of wood.
Michael works with both seasoned or green wood, and particularly enjoys the effects of the drying process on his green wood sculptures.