Welcome to the internet site of Michael Priestley.

I was born in Chester in the UK and worked for several years for British Telecom as a Design Engineer. After leaving British Telecom I successfully completed my BTEC Diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design at the West Cheshire College in Chester and then studied Ceramics at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, gaining a BA Hons’ Degree. I then worked as an assistant to artist Gwen Heeney in Welshpool and as an assistant to artist Robert Harrison and others at the Creating the Yellow Brick Road Conference and Symposium at the Ironbridge George Museum and Shrewsbury College of Art and Technology. I also gained a PGCE for Post 16 Education from the University of Wales College Newport, whilst teaching art and ceramics at Gwent College, Pontypool, South Wales. I have also been involved in several artist in residencies, notably at the Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans, Cardiff.

The sources and ideas for my art work are taken, in a very Post - Modern eclectic manner, from a broad range of visual stimuli that I find particularly interesting. This includes Baroque architecture, the external and internal built environment, Americana, cars especially of the 1940’s and 50’s, landscape painting, trains and popular visual culture. I also enjoy drawing and painting directly from objects and nature, photomontaging my ceramic pieces and writing short stories to go with this work.

I have contributed to several exhibitions, notably at the Business Design Centre in London, The Royal Exchange in London and The National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff. I held my first solo exhibition at The Wrexham Arts Centre in 2006. Some of my art work is in several collections in the USA and the UK, and my work is also represented in the slide collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum London and at the Anderson Ranch Arts Centre, Colorado, USA. I currently live and work in Chester in the UK.

Most of the art work on this site is for sale. Please contact me for details.

Please note that all the quotes involved in the short stories, the short stories themselves and the associated photomontages are purely ficticious. They are not intended to denigrate, cause offense, upset, harm or stress in any way whatsoever those people in question.

Finally, if you email me and do not receive a reply please use my other email address mikeallan77@yahoo.co.uk
Acknowledgements

The sources for most of the photographs used as the basis for the photomontages are regrettably not known, except for the following -
E.H.Gombrich (The Story of Art - Phaidon) for the Philip Johnson Mausoleum.
B.Dunlop (Building a Dream, The Art of Disney Architecture - Abrams) for the Geoffrey Swindell Mausoleum, image by the Walt Disney Company.
The following have been used for The Journeys of Angels 1-4.
I.Harrison with photographs by Colin Bowling (Hornby, The Official Illustrated History - Harper Collins).
K.T.Jackson and C.J.Vergara (Silent Cities - Princetown Architectural Press).
D.Keister and R.A.Cronin (Going Out in Style, The Architecture of Eternity - Facts on File).
G.F.Allen (The Illustrated History of Railways in Britain - Marshall Cavendish).
B.Cunliffe with photographers B.Blake and L.Von Matt (Rome and Her Empire - Constable).
Eyewitness Travel Guides (Cresta DK).
A.Warhol, image for part of Princess Diana Commemorative Plate 2, Princess Diana Memorial Tablet 3 and Six Princess Dianas 2, photomontage.
The artist wishes to record a debt of thanks to all the sources concerned.
The artists own photographs have been used for the Princess Diana Gravestone, Raymond Loewy Mausoleum, A Seat for a Mermaid, The Pimmee Memorial Tablet and The Journeys of Angels 1-4.