Michael Broad

As an artist and author of books for children, my work is deeply rooted in storytelling. I enjoy creating visual narratives - fragments of stories set in imaginary landscapes - often favouring a monochrome palette for its mysterious, dreamlike quality.

I begin by working intuitively in sketchbooks, where familiar characters return and new ones appear. I produce many drawings - almost subconsciously - following symbols and storylines as they are revealed, and turn these into paintings and sculptures.

Much of my childhood was spent daydreaming, drawing make-believe lands and developing my inner world as a place of escape. Now I continue this practice in my work, making art and stories that seek to spirit the viewer away…

Michael Broad studied illustration at Portsmouth University, earning 1st Class Honours Degree in 1999. He then moved to London to work as a commercial artist and made books in his spare time. One of these books caught the attention of a literary agent and his first publishing contract followed in 2005.

Michael has since written and illustrated more than thirty books for children and has been translated into fifteen languages worldwide. His picture books have been nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Stockport Schools Book Award, and his young fiction has been shortlisted for the Nottingham Children's Book Award and the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.

Michael continues to paint alongside book projects and his enduring fascination with stories has fed into a body of work depicting dreamlike landscapes full of narrative and a large cast of characters. He has recreated many of these characters as porcelain sculptures.

Michael’s paintings and ceramics reside in private art collections internationally and his work been shown in various exhibitions including the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2014
The Glorious Arthouse "Fourfold Fable" December 2015
Devon Artists Open Exhibition at "Unearth" Summer 2016
Exeter Phoenix "Paper Phoenix" Art Fair December 2016
Dulwich Festival Artist's Open Studio 2017
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2017