Mychael Barratt was born in Canada but after arriving for what was meant to be a two-week stay 20 years ago now thinks of himself as a Londoner. He has the immigrant's zeal for his adopted home and includes local settings that have a personal resonance in much of his work. He is a narrative artist and anecdotal incidents from his day-to-day life, which he gathers like a magpie, are at the heart of his paintings and prints. When Mychael was commissioned by A&C Black to write a book on intaglio printmaking he decided to try out all the techniques he wrote about. His print O for a Muse of Fire, based on the work of William Shakespeare, is the culmination of those experiments, as he has created a 26-plate etching that includes every intaglio technique from drypoint and engraving to mezzotint and aquatint.

Mychael Barratt was born in Toronto and has been living and working in London since 1984.

Education:

1980-82        Symposium School of Art, Winnipeg, Canada

1982-84        Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada

1989-90        Central St. Martin's School of Art, London

Associations:

Elected Member of The Federation of Canadian Artists, (FCA), 1998

Elected Member of The Greenwich Printmakers Association, 1999

Elected Member of The Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers, 1999

Made a Fellow of The Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers, (RE), 2002

Selected Exhibitions:                        

1999-2004        National Print Exhibitions, Mall Gallery, London (group shows)

2000-2003        Overseas Printmakers, Flagstaff Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (group shows)

2000        No Day Without a Line, Bankside Gallery, London ( invited

        group show)

2001        The Green Line, Gallery K, London

Nicosia, Cyprus; Athens, Greece ( invited group shows)

2001        Gallery K, Hampstead, London (solo show)

2002        Craft Centre and Design Gallery, Leeds (solo show)

2002        Gallery K, Nicosia, Cyprus (solo show)

2002        Printspace Gallery, Bear Gardens, London (solo show)

2003        Wiseman Gallery, Oxford, UK ( two-person show)

2004        Obsidian Art, Stoke Mandeville, Bucks ( three-person show)

2004        39 Essex Street, London (solo show)

2004        Under the Influence, Bankside Gallery, London ( four-person

        show)

2005        Under the Influence Tour, five UK galleries (four-person show)

2005        Gallery K, Hampstead, London (solo show)

2006        Gallery K, Nicosia, Cyprus (solo show)

2006        Grapevine Gallery, Norwich (solo show)

2007        Iona House Gallery, Woodstock (solo show)

2007        Biscuit Factory, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, (solo show)

2008        Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury (solo show)

2008        Gallery K, London (solo show)

2008        New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham (solo show)

2008        Biscuit Factory, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (solo show)

2009        Yard Gallery, Holywood, Belfast, Northern Ireland (solo show)

2009        Cambridge Contemporary Art, Cambridge (solo show)

Bibliography

Images: The Annual of the Association of Illustrators, 1988

Encyclopedia of Printmaking Techniques, Judy Martin, Headline Publications, 1993

Art Business Today Magazine, Feature, September 2000

Western Standard Magazine, Feature, August, 2004

Artists & Illustrators Magazine, Feature, April 2006

Intaglio: A Guide to Traditional Printmaking Techniques, A&C Black

Awards

2006 - Peter Blake Award, Originals '06, The National Print Exhibition

2006 - Ashmolean Museum Prize, work added to collection