Michael de Bono

Michael de Bono is a self taught painter living and working in Wales. His ability developed through the study of drawing, technique and a love of old master works. After a decade Michael felt he had achieved his objective and exhibited his first painting at London’s Royal Academy of Art in 2008, which sold at the private view.

Leonardo, Van Eyke, Memling, Vermeer and Caravaggio are of special importance. He explains, “I admire these artists not only for their remarkable skill, but there’s a sense of mystery to their work, a transcendent quality that appeals to both the scholar and the casual onlooker. It’s a valuable achievement, and a challenge, how does a painter impart that same kind of electricity to a simple depiction of a pear or to a face? This is the hallmark of a master and is perhaps one reason why their art still endures while empires have fallen each in their turn.”

Characterised by his beautifully rendered oil paintings with a specific emphasis on light effects, Michael’s interest in the elegance and primacy of the natural world finds expression within his figurative and still life works, the intimacy of which invites us to reflect freely upon their narrative context.

Michael has exhibited his paintings with many prominent national institutions including the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal British Artists, the Royal West of England Academy and the Royal Academy of Art in London. In 2009 Michael was awarded two prizes by the Worshipful Company of Painter Stainers for his painting entitled ‘Natural Philosophy’. He is the first artist to have received a dual prize in the history of the award. In 2013 Michael was presented at the Mall galleries with the RBA Arts Trust Award.