Michael Terry

Michael Terry

Ramsgate, Kent, United Kingdom

About Michael Terry

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. ARTIST STATEMENT I come from an established career in illustrating, I have illustrated for advertising to children’s books and now creating my own imagery offers so much freedom to explore my imagination but I still enjoy the challenges that illustration offers me. My art is about my relationship with the natural world which has been my passion since my adolescents. It manifests it’s self through my work in the imagery I use. The direction of my work is not to portray nature per say but to take inspiration from it. I take my guide as to what to draw from what emerges into my imagination. Sometimes I show the energy within a creature, sometimes the stillness. And lastly, sometimes I like to include a surrealist element or humour within my work. I mainly work in scraper board, a medium I have employed on occasions in my illustration work and now frequently in my art. I enjoy the contrast I can achieve with this medium, the application of brush stroke and pen contrasting with the fine line of the scraper.

Education:

Folkestone Art School

Events:

Design and Art Directors award for illustration.
Mecanorma award for best poster illustration.
Red House Children's Book Awards, short listed.
Bishops Stotford Children's Book Award, short listed.

Exhibitions:

The Association of illustrators Images exhibitions.
Two exhibitions at The Association of Illustrators.
Wildlife Exhibition at the Mall Galleries 2012
Work exhibited at The Lilford Gallery Framing, Canterbury.