Michael Ford (artist)

Michael Ford (28 July 1920 – 16 June 2005) was an English artist who worked in several media and whose paintings often have a somewhat naive quality coupled with elements of minute, detailed observation.[1]

For other people named Michael Ford, see Michael Ford (disambiguation).

Michael Ford
Born(1920-07-28)28 July 1920
Overton, England
Died16 June 2005(2005-06-16) (aged 84)
Winchester, England
NationalityBritish
EducationGoldsmiths' College
Known forPainting, drawing

Biography

Early life

Ford was the son of a former Army major who was a farmer and the managing director of a seed merchant business at Overton near Winchester. Ford was born deaf as a result of his mother contracting rubella while pregnant. His mother ran a 'Home School' on the family farm which Ford attended, before studying art at Goldsmiths' College between 1937 and 1940.[2][3]

World War Two
Home Guard Brewing Tea just before Dawn (1941) (Art.IWM ART LD 846)

In May 1940, Ford joined the Local Defence Volunteers, which soon became the Home Guard and also worked three days per week as a coal miner whilst also doing farm work. He learnt to ride a motorbike and became a dispatch rider.[1] Ford continued to paint and submitted a number of pictures to the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC.[4] The first to be accepted by WAAC was Home Guards Brewing Tea just before Dawn which Ford had first sketched in a shepherd's hut whilst waiting to go on Home Guard duty. A submission in May 1941 of a painting of a Land Girl was refused, but in July 1941 WAAC accepted War Weapons Week in a Country Town and included it in their ongoing National Gallery exhibition.[5] A reproduction of the painting was included in Eric Newton's 1945 book War Through Artists' Eyes.[6] Ford continued with his Home Guard duties and farm work and in February 1942 submitted another picture to WAAC. This oil painting, Italian Prisoners-of-war Working on the Land, was purchased by WAAC for fifteen guineas and was one of the few depictions of prisoners of war at work acquired by WAAC.[7][8] Ford also designed a poster featuring a Land Girl with the slogan "Are you working of shirking ? More women are needed".[1]

Later life

After the war, Ford had a long career as an artist and illustrator. He worked in many different media, pastels, ink, charcoal, watercolours and oil paint. He had works exhibited at the Royal Academy, with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, with the New English Art Club, the Royal Society of British Artists and in the Paris Salon.[6][9] Ford had a long-running contract with the magazine Farmers Weekly to portray a featured farmer or landowner. Ford died at Winchester in 2005.[1]

References
  1. Gill Clarke (2008). The Women's Land Army A Portrait. Sansom & Company. ISBN 978-1-904537-87-8.
  2. "Michael Ford (1920-2005)". Liss Fine Art. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  3. Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  4. "War artists archive". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  5. "War Weapons Week in a Country Town". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  6. David Buckman (1998). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0-95326-095-X.
  7. Brain Foss (2007). War paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939-1945. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10890-3.
  8. "Italian Prisoners-of-war Working on the Land". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  9. Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 5 Dyck-Gemignani. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2-7000-3075-3.
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