About the artist:

I completed my Foundation Course in Fine Art at the University of the West of England and then began a Degree Course in Illustration. My marriage ended during this time and I had to abandon the Degree Course and get a job - very quickly - in order to survive financially. I eventually became self- employed as a portrait artist in 2001 working to commission and made my living from this line of work. Clients would come to my Studio near Bristol, England and I would paint their portrait over a series of sittings, working from life and also from photographs. My preferred medium was oil, but I also used pastels, charcoal and pencil. I have always been interested in figurative art and taught Life Drawing for many years in my home village of Wrington, which is about 10 miles south of Bristol. On moving to Cape Town, the feedback I received from galleries was that portraits were not popular in South Africa; they were considered old-fashioned. I therefore had to have a rethink and decided to go to the complete opposite of portraiture; paintings figures with no detail at all, just modern, stylish acrylic paintings on a pure white canvas, but outlined with a strong, bold, black outline - something I always toyed with ever since I was a teenager. The result is that the paintings are fun, funky, clean and bright; any size seems to work, but the bigger, the better in my estimation! - Miche Watkins EXHIBITIONS 2002 CentreSpace, Corn Street, Bristol, as part of a joint Exhibition with 2 other artists 2003/4 The Croft Gallery, Swindon, Wiltshire 2003 The Hans Price Gallery, Weston Super Mare, Somerset 2003 The Walled Garden, Wrington, as part of the first ever North Somerset Arts Week 2003 The Blakehay Theatre, Weston Super Mare, Somerset as part of the Pinnacle Group of Artists 2003 Clevedon Arts Exhibition, Clevedon, N. Somerset 2003 Clifton Arts Society, School of Art & Design, Bristol 2004 Thornbury Arts, Thornbury, Bristol 2004 The Mount Somerset Hotel, Taunton, Somerset 2004 Clifton Arts Society, School of Art & Design, Bristol 2005 North Somerset Arts Week - open Studio 2006 Open Studios Wrington - joint exhibition of all local artists 2006 Clevedon Arts Exhibition, Clevedon, N. Somerset 2007 Bath Victoria Art Gallery, Centenary Exhibition - Bath, Somerset 2007 North Somerset Arts Week - open Studio 2008 Open Studios Wrington - joint exhibition of all local artists 2009 Royal West of England Academy Summer Exhibition, Bristol "Since moving to Cape Town from England last year, I have exhibited at the Cafe Paradiso in Kloof Street, City Bowl. I am now represented by the Lisa King Gallery in the Cape Quarter, the 3rd I Gallery in Waterkant Street, both in Cape Town, Art On the Bay in Camps Bay, The Gill Alderman Gallery in Kenilworth and Red The Gallery in Steenberg. I have just taken part in a two-man exhibition of my Line Art paintings at The Framery, Regent Road in Sea Point, Cape Town." - Miche Watkins