Mike Bernard British, Contemporary

Mike Bernard RI is a contemporary British artist celebrated for his vibrant, textured mixed-media paintings of coastal landscapes, harbours, and urban street scenes. Born in Kent in 1957, he trained at the West Surrey College of Art & Design (BA Hons, Fine Art, 1978) before completing his postgraduate studies at the prestigious Royal Academy Schools in London - one of the most selective art schools in the world. In 1997, he was elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the honour that gives his name the initials RI. Mike moved to Devon in 2008, where the extraordinary quality of coastal light continues to inspire his practice. His subjects - harbours, sailing clubs, market scenes at home and abroad - are not documentary records but expressive interpretations: mood, movement, and atmosphere distilled through paint and paper. His distinctive technique begins on the studio floor. Working from on-location sketches, Mike layers sheets of newspaper, tissue, leaflets, and magazine pages onto board or canvas, adhering them with acrylic medium to build an abstract collage structure. When dry, bold washes of acrylic ink are applied in sweeping, unpredictable strokes, the "happy accidents" that give his surfaces their characteristic energy. From this controlled chaos, the subject gradually emerges through gestural drawing and richly saturated colour, arriving at a finished state that balances recognisable imagery with a semi-abstract, impressionistic feel. Mike's influences range from the British Modernists of the St Ives School - Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis among them - to the Post-Impressionist boldness of Henri Matisse and Raoul Dufy. He has exhibited widely across London and the UK provinces, participated in international art fairs in New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and his work has been included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He is the author of two published books on painting technique, including Collage, Colour and Texture in Painting (co-authored with Robin Capon, 2010, Batsford), and has been featured in The Artist, International Artist, and Leisure Painter magazines.