GALLERY

MICHAEL SMITH

Michael lives and works just outside Bath. He was educated at John Mason Grammar School, Abingdon and Leicester Polytechnic where he studied Biology. After this Michael spent many years in the print industry running his own graphic design company.

Five years ago, having decided to take a step back from the rat race, he set up a small team of highly skilled decorative painters specialising in period housing. In 2002 Michael and his team spent three months at Buckingham Palace decorating the newly refurbished Queens Private Gallery.

Michael also enjoys teaching at school in the area where he incorporates creative writing with art. He and the children have worked collectively on large scale art works, which are then displayed within the schools.

Throughout this time Michael has been painting and exhibiting in and around Oxford, Henley, Beaconsfield, West Wycombe and more recently in Bath. Much of his more recent work has been inspired by his love of wildlife and the countryside. (He is a member of the RSPB, The Woodland Trust and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature).

A confirmed Grecophile, having spent eighteen months working and living in Greece, he continues to draw on this experience as an important influence on much of his work, both in writing and painting. "There are many hares on the Greek mainland and islands, at least those that manage to avoid the pot!"

Hare
By Michael Smith

Have you seen, as I have done, The magic hare, running gone
Leaping and turning over field and meadow
Tears to the eyes, but then again, somehow
Sensing that feeling in the neck, in the nape
Of chance to fell, to sprint, to escape
Speeding alongside, exhausted, panting
Sprite and fit
Not twisted, ranting