Mick’s first painting for many years was an acrylic on canvas picture of a hen “Harriet’s Busy Day”, which was a finalist in Britain’s Got Artists and exhibited in Leeds Central Library in July 2012.

He has since produced many paintings and drawings which demonstrate further development of his “Continuous Line Drawing” style. These are mostly animals, but there are portraits of people, landscapes and abstract subjects. Commissions include a Kangaroo which hangs in Brisbane.
Mick is a member of Harrogate and Nidderdale Art Club, as well as Alwoodley and Stainbeck Art clubs in Leeds.

At school Mick was a talented artist and at 15 won a prize in a national competition set up by Sir John Rothenstein, Director of the Tate Gallery. Initially he worked as a police cadet and then a constable before switching to become a Chartered Accountant.

He originally painted with poster colours on card, after starting continuous line drawings in 1965 (triggered by doodling when bored at work). Northern Screenprints Ltd in Pudsey offered to produce prints of 4 animals and he sold another 4 designs to greetings card printers J Arthur Dixon (Isle of Wight). Between 1969 and 1971 he lived in Nottingham and was accepted into the Nottingham Society of Artists. Mick travelled to London on the train, with pictures under his arms, to enter Open Exhibitions and had 10 accepted, including at the national Society on The Mall.

His natural style developed through many observed links with nature and he realised that this was connected to new mathematics of that time. He corresponded with mathematicians from Leeds University and the Open University. Marriage and a career (back in Leeds) and children then took over. Mick’s painting ceased in about 1973 and the maths in about 1976.

“I joined the Association of Animal Artists in late 2013 and have been pleased to have paintings accepted at Martin Mere and the Annual Exhibition. I was delighted to hear that my “Panther” had been awarded winner of the “Creative Creatures” category in the annual competition.”

Web site. www.mickburton.co.uk
e-mail. mick.burton2@ntlworld.com