OLD AZURIANS

Painter of extraordinary skill and talent

 

Michael Taylor was born in Worthing in 1952, the second son of Patrick E M Taylor and his wife Margaret (nee Fromm). Michael attended Worthing High School for Boys from 1963 to 1967. His older brother Stewart, who was a hard-working student and an accomplished pianist to boot, preceded Michael at the school.

 

Because of this, in Michael’s own words: “I had a lot to live up to, and opted for the lazy option by keeping my head down and drifting along in his shadow. Being a borderline eleven plus pass, I was very aware that I was perhaps only accepted on the basis of his example, and to keep siblings together.”

 

“I had always drawn a lot, and been encouraged at my previous schools, but I think artistic pursuits were not high on the school priorities. For this reason, the prospect of a double art lesson at the end of Fridays in Mr Dickinson's well equipped art room was like an oasis to me, and got the weekend off to a good start.”

 

Despite the apparent doubts of the headmaster, Mr Evans, about Michael’s chances of success, Michael passed all his O-Level exams. He eventually decided to abandon A-Levels, instead he moved on to develop his creative talents elsewhere, first at the Worthing School of Art (1969-70), and then at Goldsmiths School of Art in London, from which he graduated BA in 1973.

 

Funding himself by working at a pub in the evenings, he started work on his first canvas. A second followed after the first had been completed, and both were exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Both paintings were well-received and sold, enabling Michael to concentrate on producing further exquisitely-executed works more or less full time ever since.

 

Each of his paintings is full of carefully observed detail such that, to appreciate each work fully, one needs to spend time absorbing it and returning to it again and again, for there always seems to be something new to discover and marvel at.

 

Michael was commissioned to produce a portrait of Lord Falconer which now hangs in the House of Lords, and of Julian Bream the classical guitarist, PD James the crime novelist, and the composer Sir John Tavener, all of which,  along with a recently acquired self portrait, are owned by the National Portrait Gallery. Michael also produces portraits of ordinary people who capture his interest, and intriguing still life paintings that often include dismembered antique machinery, such as clocks, which Michael has described as little comical tragedies, once highly organized, but now struggling to perform their intended function. His rendering of glassware is stunningly realistic.