Michelle Campbell

Michelle Campbell was born in Liverpool, England in 1967 and enjoyed drawing from a young age.'I knew I wanted to work as an artist from a young age'. At the age of seventeen she attended City College, Liverpool, studying Graphic Design However, I found this too restrictive and, with my financial circumstances limited, I left after just two years. Aside from that, I have had no formal training.

 

Thereafter, Michelle worked in numerous jobs, selling her paintings and hand painted cards at local craft fairs and to local and national shops, designing an album sleeve cover for a local band, designed and painted a shop front title, also selling the occasional painting to friends. She now works full-time while painting in the evening I like to share my weekends with my partner, the poet and author, Kevin Cowdall. My artistic influences are Brian Froud, Alphonse Mucha, Amy Brown, Allan Lee and Linda Ravenscroft. My biggest influence to date in any medium is probably the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, I am so amazed by this production even though I must be one of the few people who hasnâ read the book! Michelleâ's preferred materials are Windsor and Newton watercolour pans, Designer Gouache, Windsor and Newton pure sable brushes (the best to work with) and 240 or 300lb Bockingford or Saunders cold press watercolour paper for the texture. Depending on how much detail there is in the painting, I will use masking fluid first for the detailed areas, then the background and I paint the characters last. I don't usually do preliminary sketches so I sometimes hope that the painting turns out well; there has been a few mishaps here and there! I hope people can appreciate the work I have produced as much as I have enjoyed making it.

 

In her spare time, Michelle enjoys dining out ( a vegetarian ), travelling, the theatre and listening to a wide variety of live and recorded music (her favourite artists and styles being Pat Metheny, Santana, Joni Mitchell, Oregon and Latin jazz amongst many others). She also enjoys cinema - favourite movies are Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Lord of The Rings: Return of the King! She also likes Far from Heaven, Casablanca and lots of classic black and white movies.

 

Michelle is currently liaising with her distributors to have her work manufactured into slate stones, T-shirts, fleeces, tote bags, bookmarks, keyrings, magnets and a variety of other merchandise, which will be available shortly. Her work is available to purchase now, as greetings cards and various size prints from various outlets (including the newly opened South Bohemian Art Gallery, which is based on Smithdown Road, Liverpool, where some of her work is exhibited). Her next project will be to illustrate her partner, Kevin Cowdall's children's poetry book, 'The Land of Dreams'.