Pear Painting

Michael was born in 1947 in Folkestone on the Kent coast. After living abroad and moving around the country he arrived back in Folkestone, there he later went to Art College from 1964 to 1967 studying graphic design and illustration. In 1967 he moved to London and worked in various design groups and advertising agencies as a designer and typographer. In 1972 he went freelance as an illustrator producing work for advertising, editorial and publishing and quickly gained a reputation in these fields. During this time he was susses fully represented by Folio. Michael was awarded a D&AD award for illustration and a Mecanorma award for best poster illustration. In 2010 he was short listed for The Red House children's book award for 'Munch Crunch Dinosaur Lunch' and Short listed at the Bishops Stortford Children's Book Award for 'The Wide Mouthed Frog'. Some of the clients he has produced work for are: Cadburies, British Airways, Quantas, Midland Bank [HSBC], Vintage Inns, Ikea, Queens Club tennis tournament, Puffin Books, Little Tiger Press, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Gullane Children’s Books, The Times, Observer and Telegraph. USA clients have been: Readers Digest Children’s Books, Golden Books [Random House] and Schoolastic. Since the mid 90’s he has been equally successful in children’s books and has produced illustrations for many books in this field. Some of the children’s books illustrated are: 'The Selfish Crocodile' [best seller], 'Little Hotchpotch', 'Rhino’s Horns' written by himself, 'Sulky Vulture' 'The Lonely Giraffe', 'Ellie and Elvis' and 'Captain Wag the Pirate Dog' series written by himself and 'The Wide-Mouthed Frog' all published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books and 'Here comes the Crocodile', 'Chameleon's Crazy Colours', 'Ouch!', 'Crunch Munch Dinosaur Lunch' and 'What's More Scary than a Shark?' published by Little Tiger Press and numerous Dick King-Smith books published by Puffin Books. His latest book 'Who lives Here?' was published by Bloomsbury in conjunction with London Zoo. He is now represented by the Bright agency. Since 2012 he has moved into fine art, his inspiration being the natural world as with his illustration work. A limited edition print entitled ‘Rook’ was selected by the Mall Galleries, London for the Wildlife Art exhibition in 2012. He lives in Canterbury, Kent.