Biography

Michael was born in London, England in 1948. He spent his early childhood in London and rural Kent, before coming to Canada at the age of nine. For the next twenty-four years he lived in Winnipeg, eventually graduating from the University of Manitoba with a degree in Psychology. Currently, Michael resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife and two daughters, and works at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Artist Statement

Painting and philosophy have been the two constant threads running through my life. I started painting in oils at the age of fifteen and was fortunate to be somewhat proficient in the medium almost from the beginning. For the most part I am self taught. My recent works are imaginative landscapes that hopefully convey a certain mood through the quality of light. Because they are drawn from imagination, these paintings could perhaps be more accurately viewed as expressing an inner rather than outer landscape. Their primary focus, however, is still mood. Interestingly, the ideas and concepts that are the currency of my other passion, philosophy, are nowhere directly expressed in my paintings. It is my hope, however, that in wrestling with the mobile and paradoxical ideas of philosophy, a mood of soul has gradually developed that is conveyed through the images. As Goethe wrote: “Beauty is the sensible reflection of the Idea”.