Michael ALFORD, 1958 ✿

Michael Alford is a British figurative painter whose work includes landscapes, cityscapes, female figures, portraits, and murals. Alford was born in Cookham, England in 1958l and now lives and works in London.

He is best known for masterful cityscapes of contemporary urban centres such as London, New York and Barcelona. His paintings and drawings of people men and women are highly sought-after for their combination of fine draughtsmanship, acute observation and sense of drama.

Ti ho lasciato andare
come un mare impetuoso
a disfare il giorno
spettinare le ore
e stordire
in questo disordine
il canto di un passero giocoso...

~ Catherine La Rose©2022 ~

He attended the Dragon School and later Rugby School. His first art training came from his father, an officer in the Royal Engineers, who taught him how to draw in perspective at an early age.

After a period in the Royal Marines, he attended Durham University where he took a degree in Spanish and Arabic. Later he traveled extensively in South America and the Middle East, documenting his trips in a series of detailed sketchbooks.

He received further art training at the Slade and Chelsea schools of art before beginning his career as a muralist and fine arts painter, exhibiting widely in the UK, the US and Europe. Michael Alford lives in London but travels widely seeking new subjects.

Alford exhibits work in group and solo shows in galleries including Wimbledon Fine Arts; Panter and Hall Galleries; Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, Mall Galleries with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and Duncan Campbell Fine Art.

Alford has been an official War Artist to the British Military on three occasions. In 2010 he accompanied the Grenadier Guards to Afghanistan, where he created a series of watercolors based on his experience in the field. Alford's works are in corporate holdings including Berkeley Square Gallery; Hill & Knowlton; Sheraton Hotel, Amsterdam; Claridges; and Trust House Forte.  

Michael was a council member of the Chelsea Art Society from 2011 to 2017. In 2017 he was a semi-finalist in Sky Arts Landscape artist of the year. He is the recipient of the ROI Stanley Grimm Prize (2016), the Agnes Reeve Memorial Prize (2000) and the Primaluce International Trompe L'Oeil Festival Third Place Prize (2003).