Artists : Mike Spoor

Mike Spoor has been a professional illustrator for fifteen years, prior to which he taught and lectured in ceramics. His illustrations are energetic and spontaneous ranging in style from humorous animals and people to serious and dramatic depictions of adventure, history and many other subjects. He is currently illustrating a highly successful series of 17 books, ’Dinosaur Cove’ published by Oxford University Press, but he has previously completed work on more than 300 books for publishers worldwide. Mike uses a variety of media ranging from pencil, pen & ink, watercolour and computer generated images. He is a highly knowledgeable speaker and demonstrator to all age levels and delivers in a friendly down-to earth style, drawing upon his craft and his years of teaching.
A brief biography :
Mike was born in Northumberland, lived in Wiltshire for his secondary schooling at Marlbrorough, attended Art College in Cheltenham and trained as a teacher in Canterbury. He taught ceramics in a secondary school in Kent for 10 years while also acting as tutor for teacher in-service courses and he moderated CSE and GCSE examinations in Art. He gained an M.A. in Art Education then lectured at the Kent institute of Art & Design until he and his family went to Queensland where he began illustrating professionally. He worked for a year delivering workshops in ceramics with the ‘Australian Flying Art School’ and was simultaneously funded by Government agencies to run illustration workshops for schools. After some years the family returned to the UK where he has continued to illustrate for a living but he also occasionally teaches ceramics and 3D computer modeling with animation. He lives in Kent, has three daughters, the youngest still at school, the older girls graduated in Biomedical Science and Fine Art respectively, both now working in Sheffield.