Michael Sheldon

I’ve been creative from a young age, which was actively encouraged by my mother. This carried on through school and after obtaining top grades in Art I went on to study A level Art. Halfway through the course I had a keen eye on another career path so I dropped my A levels and I joined the Royal Marines Commando’s. This led to a long period of time without doing any art at all other than playing my acoustic guitar. I spent just over 8 years in the Royal Marines and conducted 2 tours of Afghanistan but when I was due to go on another tour I started to think of other career opportunities and I left. I then went into the private security sector and spent 3 years protecting merchant vessels from the threat of pirates. During this time I would take small canvasses out with me and this rekindled my love of art again. I also wrote many songs on guitar and released a comedy album about my time in the Royal Marines donating money to a Royal Marines charity. Most of the paintings I did during this time were given to a local charity from my hometown and were auctioned off. I then spent 5 years doing Close Protection and during this time my wife who has always been very supportive of my work, pushed me to take painting seriously in 2017. I entered my first competition in 2018, which I won, and it gave me the confidence to continue. I am now a serving Metropolitan police officer and have been for over 3 years, that coupled with having a 11 month baby daughter my painting has recently slowed down again. My mother was a strong advocate of me pursuing my painting and she was my biggest fan. Unfortunately my mother passed away last year unexpectedly with cancer just before the birth of my daughter. She was my biggest fan and was so proud of my paintings. I was close to giving up painting again but my father said to me that my mother loved my art and she would be horrified if I stopped, subsequently I was approached by a gallery in central London who had found me on instagram and asked if they could exhibit and sell my work. I am a realist painter touching on hyperrealism currently painting mainly portraits in oil medium and pastel. My biggest influencers and the painting that really stood out to me are Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, which is in the National Gallery, and Meredith Frampton’s Portrait of a Young Woman in the Tate Modern. My hobbies include hybrid fitness, which includes triathlon, obstacle course racing and hyrox, which has been ingrained in me from the Royal Marines.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.