| THE ARTIST | ||
Born in 1941 and educated in Hertfordshire, Michael Cooper received no formal art training after leaving school, but his paintings have been purchased by customers throughout the world. His pictures of rural England may now be found in homes and galleries as far apart as Norway and The Falklands, Monte Carlo or the Australian outback.  In 1984 Michael Cooper first opened a
studio in Street and became a full time artist. Later, after a joint exhibition at Harrods
his paintings started to attract attention and he discovered a demand for his detailed
watercolour studies of the buildings of the countryside.
The artist's careful observation of these buildings, which are so often
taken for granted, has meant that many of his pictures are now the only record of sites
that have now been converted out of all recognition. Indeed his work has been instrumental
in drawing attention to some of our threatened rural heritage and saving it from the hands
of thoughtless developers
In addition to numerous private commissions, in 1989 the artist was also commissioned to paint the whisky distilleries of Allied Distillers in Scotland and fifteen large paintings, the result of two years work are now hanging at their headquarters in Dumbarton. In 1996 the studio moved to Clarks Village, where only
one flight of stairs up, it is somewhat more accessible to visitors than his first beginnings
in the attic rooms of Thrilled as he is to discover some rural backwater where time has passed it by, Michael Cooper also believes that it is important to depict the countryside as it is today, and that the hay wain of the past is the tractor and trailer of the present day. Click here to return to the catalogue |
Crispin Hall.