Mike Molloy began his art school training aged just 14 at Ealing School of Art, where he studied under the celebrated painter Frank Auerbach. At the age of 16, he began working on newspapers at night whilst continuing his art education during the day.
In his late teens Mike joined the art desk on the Daily Mirror, eventually becoming the paper's youngest ever editor, a job he would hold for the next ten years. Following a highly successful and distinguished career, Mike left newspaper journalism in the late 90s to rekindle his passion for painting.
Mike’s work has been exhibited in London at the Mayfair Gallery, the Stoner Gallery, the Dollar Street Gallery in Gloucestershire and at the Galerie Aalders in the South of France. A number of celebrities collect his work, including journalist and broadcaster Anne Robinson, cookery writer Delia Smith, former Downing Street adviser Alastair Campbell and the actress Lesley Joseph.
Mike is also a prolific author, with thirteen published novels, including the two best-sellers, The Century and The Gallery. He has written five children's books, including The Witch Trade Trilogy and Peter Raven Under Fire. In 2017 he published his memoirs, The Happy Hack to critical acclaim.
As a student, one of Mike’s heroes was the renowned satirical cartoonist Trog, also known as Wally Fawkes. The main caricature on this page was drawn by Trog while he was at the Daily Mail, where his famous Flook cartoon ran from 1949 - 1984. They were later to become close friends.
Mike says he paints because he has a compulsion to do so. For him, painting is an inexplicable addiction; an image will come into his mind and he cannot rest until he has put it down on canvas.
Subjects include the Cotswolds countryside around Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton in Marsh, Bourton on the Water, Broadway and Burford in Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire.
