Michael Reeves U.K. / Canada B: 1938 D: 2015. Watercolour on paper entitled Goreski Landing Scugog Ontario. Signed in middle bottom. At the age of 13 Michael Reeves attended the Bath Art School which dated from 1852 and was one of 17 founded in Britain as a consequence of the Great Exhibition of 1851. There were only 78 pupils in the Bath Art School at the time he was there. In 1956 at eighteen years old Michael graduated to the senior school The Bath Academy housed at Corsham Court, the first residential Academy of Art in England. During the Second World War it had served as a military hospital.Lord Paul Methuen, owner of Corsham Court, was a pupil of the late painter Walter Sickert. Sickerts widow, Therese Lessore, had offered Sickerts studio to the Bath Art School when their own building was destroyed by a bomb in 1942.Clifford Ellis was the Director of The Bath Art School and, after the war, Lord Methuen told Clifford that he was looking for a tenant who could benefit from the visual ambiance of Corsham Court. Lord Methuen favoured Michael, a local boy, whom he considered to be very talented. Michael and Lord Methuen became good friends during the time Michael spent at Corsham.Corsham Court was extraordinarily well-funded with the help of The Gulbenkien Foundation in Lisbon. As a result, the school could afford to bring in many of the most famous artists of the time as tutors and so the calibre of the tuition was unrivalled. The principal teachers were Howard Hodgkin, William Scott and Adrien Heath, as well as Peter Potworowki, Lyn Chadwick and Jack Smith. Some of the senior staff had taught at the Bauhaus until forced to leave Germany by the Nazis. Reeves shared a studio with Edward Piper, son of John Piper who was one of the governors of Corsham. While at Corsham he received the travelling scholarship and went to work in Italy for a time. After graduating from the four year course in Fine Art, I did a post-graduate degree at Brighton College of Art. In 1967 Reeves had became Director of the British Craft Centre.In later years Michael became a well-respected authority on the Bloomsbury Group and befriended the painter Duncan Grant. Michael also became friends with the Bloomsburys arch-rival, the traditional neo-romantic painter Maxwell Armfield — one of the last romantic painters whom he greatly admired. They were introduced by Mick Fleetwood of the popular music group Fleetwood Mac.Fleetwood Mac had commissioned Maxwell to do the cover art for one of their albums and Mick offered to introduce Michael to him. Michael gained a great deal from Maxwell, who had always hoped to buy and move to a property in North America on the proceeds of his paintings, but by the time that was possible he was well into his nineties and too old to do so.Michael also became friends with the writer Bruce Chatwin while his closest literary friend was Ian Somerville who had been the companion of William Golding. Ian was the inventor of the Dream Machine which he sold to Peggy Guggenheim. The prototype for the Dream Machine was given to Michael but sadly was stolen from the home immediately after his funeral. In 1979, on the advice of his friend the artist Peter Kinley, Michael moved his family and antique business to Canada. Peter had a show in Toronto at Waddington Gallery. At dinner one evening he was so enthusiastic about Canada it prompted our move.In the early 1980s Michael was elected President of The Canadian Antique Dealers Association. The eminent Marion Bradshaw noted that the tour of the C.A.D.A. show that Michael orchestrated for the media was one of the most fascinating and educational experiences to which she had ever been treated. She was beyond impressed by his knowledge and impromptu presentation.In the mid-1980s when Michael was selling his collection of Armfield paintings, his step-daughter Bene found for sale a remarkable property on Lake Scugog near Port Perry, Ontario. Michael and Norma bought their Scugog Eden with the proceeds of the sale of Maxwell Armfelds paintings.Some of Michaels works are inspired by the Canadian artists David Milne, Tom Thompson and Stanley Cosgrove, but others honour British greats and long time friends Howard Hodgkin, Duncan Grant and Maxwell Armfield. His works were also influenced by the French artists Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall and Nicolas Poussin. During the the 90s Michael created his largest body of work and had exclusive shows at the Lake Gallery in Toronto in 1992 and 1993. These led to another solo exhibition at the prominent Robert McLauglin Gallery in Oshawa in 1994. Joan Murray, the Director of the RMG at the time, said Reeves work is a triumph of individualism. He is one of the major painters of his generation. She considered his work a tour de force of inventive statement. Bio courtesy of Micheal Reeves.com.

frame dimensions 20 x 17 inches piece dimensions 13 3/4 x 10 inches.

Good condition