Michael Jeffries trained as an architect but ended up pursuing a career in business, and retired from full time work in 2001. Since then he has continued to work on a part time basis mainly because he enjoys it. He has always been very interested in art and wanted to paint but due to business commitments never had the time. However he now wishes that he had taken it up many years earlier and over the last few years he has been making up for lost time! He tends to use his architectural training to tackle street scenes but has also branched out into other subjects too.
His main love is watercolours. He paints what he sees and likes the challenge of capturing movement and activity in busy subjects using the full spectrum of tonal values. He seldom changes a painting for reasons of composition and believes this needs to be addressed before commencing the painting when deciding what to paint and from what view point.
He is inspired by the work of Seago and Wesson but mainly by the living artist John Yardley and has joined him for a week of painting for the last several years at Dedham near Colchester.