Michael Crosswaite
'With my painting my thing is humour. The more ridiculous the better. I think the world is a very silly place and hopefully this comes though in my pictures.'
After years spent travelling, Michael ended up homeless in London. During the late 80s to early 90s he squatted in a victorian vicarage, a funny old building located behind St Mary Magdalene's church in Regent's Park, and home to some strange characters, parties with projections and live bands. Once a year the queen mother would visit (the church, not the parties) and the squatters were requested not to leave the house - so as not to sully her visit with displays of unbridled hedonism or harsh reality.
Michael started painting in his fifties, and, after attending several art groups with amenable tutors applying positive reinforcement, finally found the harsh critical bashing he needed with Tam, a fair but brutal tutor whom Michael eventually appeased with a painting of two men in a row boat, a painting Tam described as 'perfect'. The relationship was over and Michael decided it was time to get his criticism from the man on the street.
He now lives in a Peabody flat and things are, to use a word from his 80s heyday, 'cool'. He says: 'With my painting my thing is humour. The more ridiculous the better. I think the world is a very silly place and hopefully this comes though in my pictures.'
