Michael Fairclough RE

Michael Fairclough RE

born 1940

b. 1940 in Blackburn

painter and printmaker of landscapes and seascapes.

Michael Fairclough studied at Kingston School of Art (1961) and spent three years as a Rome Scholar in Engraving (1964-66). In 1967 he worked in Paris under the influential printmaker Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. Fairclough spent many years as a printmaker before turning to oil painting. He has and continues to exhibit widely in Britain and throughout Europe. His oil paintings usually depict the sky with strong sunlight and the horizon of seas.

Fairclough is the son of the artists Wilfred Fairclough (ARCA, Rome Scholar, RE, RWS) and Joan Vernon-Cryer (ARCA, RWS). He studied painting at Kingston School of Art under Reginald Brill, Frank Archer and Lionel Bulmer and etching under his father. At Kingston he met Mary Malenoir (RA Schools, Rome Scholar, RE) and they later married and worked together throughout Europe. They continue to work together. Fairclough became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1973 and has spent periods teaching art in Belfast and Surrey. He has received recognition for his work, including a Royal Academy of Arts David Murray Award for Landscape 1960 and The Rome Scholarship for Printmaking 1964, among others.

Fairclough is represented by public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Government Art Collection, Post Office Headquarters (London), Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), among other regional collections. The MET Office hold five oil paintings depicting skies over the Isle of Man.

(Benjamin Angwin - September 2014)