Artist Mike Weeden

At the age of ten it was a chance encounter with a Sunday magazine article on the work of Picasso that triggered a life long passion for painting and drawing. Art was his much favoured subject at Grammar school and whilst teachers heartily encouraged enrolment at Art college, a technical career path was undertaken with several years in the Armed Forces followed by self employment in the lithographic printing industry.

It was a fortuitous introduction to Todmorden Fine Art that reignited the enthusiasm to paint and to study with earnest the work of the great artists of the 20th century. Coupled with access to the amazing stable of artists at TFA, the fuse had been lit. His work was starting to be exhibited and an exhibition at the West Yorkshire Playhouse was a notable stepping stone. Retirement from industry and a relocation to Scotland was the trigger for a new inspiration.

In 2008, after monitoring his progress for two or three years, Todmorden Fine Art approached Mike with a view to exhibiting his work at the gallery. This resulted in several sell out exhibitions with many works going to serious collectors. Eight works went to a Corporate Collection in Birmingham and five paintings were bought by the Beauchamp collection at Portsmouth University. Since 2008 he has exhibited widely in Scotland and is a regular at the prestigious Caithness Artists annual exhibition alongside such notables as King Charles III. In 2011 he became a member of the Society of Scottish artists and exhibited at the Axolotl gallery, Dundas St, Edinburgh in an exhibition featuring some notable Scottish artists.