Michael Lawrence Cadman

Artist

9 Nov 1920 - 17 Apr 2010

BIOGRAPHY

Michael was mainly a landscape painter with special interests in architecture and plant forms; he is best described as a rural painter. Michael unified his paintings by composing each subject of broad flat brushstrokes. The image as a whole is revolved through restrained suggestions of form, generating a strong sense of atmosphere, while the structure of his painting is reinforced through a predominance of vertical and horizontal elements.

Education and Teaching:

1937-39 Wimbledon School of Art, Education Exams in Drawing
1941 Wimbledon School of Art, Education Exams in Painting
1941-44 Royal College of Art, Diploma in Painting (ARCA)

1947-69 Lecturer in Fine Art and Head of Department, Epsom School of Art
1947-52 Lecturer (Intermediate course) in Drawing, Croydon College of Art
1952-69 Full time lecturer Epsom School of Art in charge of Drawing and Painting and vocational departments of Graphic Design, 2-dimensional design, ceramics and dress.

Solo exhibitions:

1961 (London)
1962 (London)
1963 (London)
1964 Canaletto Gallery, Little Venice, London
1967 Whitehall Galleries
1970 Mezzanine Gallery, Dame Sybil Thorndyke Theatre, Leatherhead, Surrey
1971
1982 Musselwhites (Southampton)

Group or shared exhibitions:

1947 Royal Society of British Artists, Mall Galleries, London
1947 Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Mall Galleries, London
1947 Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, Mall Galleries, London
1947 Royal Watercolour Society
1947-63 Exhibited in Royal Academy
1965 (London)
1966 (London)
1980-2008 Exhibited regularly at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours annual show
2005 Dorset County Museum

Membership:

1950 Elected a Member of the Reigate Society of Artists
1967 Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour (elected Member 1970, Council Member from 1994-2010)
1979 Elected a Member of the St Ives Society of Artists
19nn Associate of the Royal College of Art

Awards:

1943 ‘Award for Architect’, Royal College of Art
1943 ‘Award for Landscape Painting’, Royal College of Art

Publications:

1977 Three articles in ‘Leisure Painter’
1990 ‘Encyclopaedia of Watercolour Techniques’, Quatro Publishing
1995 ‘Buildings’, Quatro Publishing
2005 'Marine Watercolours' Dorset Life Magazine (click here to view)

Personal:

1920 November 9th Born in Epsom, Surrey, son of Alfred Leslie Cadman, Civil Servant, Board of Education (ex-Army) and Effie Beatrice Louise Cadman nee Hitchcock, younger sister of Sir Eldred Frederick Hitchcock
19nn-19nn Educated Glyn Grammar School, Epsom, Surrey.
1958 March 29th Married Anne Phyllis Burden in St Mark's Church Reigate. (Ann died in Dorset County Hospital Dorchester on 6 December 1990)

1969 Became a Professional Freelance Painter
1969-2010 Lived between Dorset and Cornwall (always yearning for the other county). And later, had a home in Bouzies in the Lot region of France.
1991 - 2009 Partner of Sheila Isabel Waddington (Sheila died Nov 2009)

2010 April 17th Died peacefully, aged 89, after a long illness, Swanage, Dorset.

Michael Cadman's work was not widely available in his lifetime and is in considerable demand by both institutions and private collectors at home and abroad, including France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, USA and Japan. His interests were natural history, architecture and plants. He lived between Dorset and Cornwall, always yearning for the other county. He also loved France and Italy.