Early Life and Formation

Context and early experience
Fell was born in 1939 in Great Dunmow, Essex. He spent his early childhood in Epping before being evacuated to Newcastle during the Second World War. He later spoke of the hardships of this period, including being returned to his parents without any shoes.

Looking and early influence
Post-war London left a lasting impression. Fell regularly visited the National Gallery and other museums with his father, developing an early familiarity with European painting and printmaking.

Character and disposition
His concern for the vulnerable appeared early; his parents recalled his habit of bringing homeless people back for tea.

Education and travel
Educated at the London Oratory School and St George’s College, Weybridge, Fell developed an early commitment to drawing. He began formal study at St Martin’s School of Art, then left to travel in Italy, spending extended periods in the churches and galleries of Florence and Rome.

Training at City & Guilds

Formal training
In 1965 Fell won a scholarship to the City & Guilds of London Art School to study painting and printmaking. Under the Principal, Elizabeth Fitz Gerald, and teachers including Bernard Dunstan and Henry Wilkinson, he received rigorous instruction in drawing, printmaking and painting.

Method and values
Craftsmanship and close observation were emphasised throughout his training. A Travelling Prize enabled further study in Italy.

London: Urban Subjects and Printmaking

Studio practice
Returning from Italy, Fell established a London-based studio practice during the late 1960s and the 1970s. He drew intensively from life — commuters, market traders, cafés, church interiors and Underground stations.

During this period, he worked various night jobs, including at the Talk of the Town nightclub, both to support himself and to observe the city’s life at close quarters. Sketches from these years record figures seen within tightly framed interiors and shared urban spaces.

Printmaking development
His printmaking matured in these years. Etchings and aquatints range from direct observation to layered explorations of reflective surfaces and compressed interiors.

Works from the Covent Garden series were included in Modern Prints and Drawings exhibition at the British Museum (1972), which acquired several prints.

Teaching
Alongside his studio work, Fell taught at City & Guilds, later serving as Head of Foundation.

Bungay: Narrative Painting and Architectural Motifs

Change of setting
In 1984 Fell and his family moved to Bungay, Suffolk, while he continued part-time teaching in London. The change of setting prompted an expansion in scale and ambition.

Work and imagery
Paintings from this period often integrate interiors, remembered events and architectural structures into more complex compositions. Bungay’s architecture and domestic interiors became important sources of imagery.

The Music House
During these years, Fell and his family restored Bridge House (the “Music House”), living and working within the rooms and staircases that appear in paintings from this period.

Gascony: Landscape, Village Life and Late Work

Relocation
Fell had first visited the Gers region of south-west France in the early 1970s. He settled there permanently in 2000, following the long-running restoration of a ruined farmhouse near the village of Rozès.

Daily rhythm and place
Living alone, Fell gradually settled into a steady rhythm: morning walks, painting, reading from his substantial art library and painting. His days were structured by routine rather than isolation.

The nearby town of Vic-Fezensac — its Sunday market, cafés, sunlit squares and church interior — became central to his imagery, providing both subject matter and weekly structure. On Sunday mornings, he would sketch the market, often seated at a café, before attending church and returning to the studio.

Late work
Works from this period include landscapes, interiors, village scenes and religious works. There were periods of personal challenge at the start, but his working habits remained constant.

Fell continued to paint until shortly before his death in Toulouse in 2023.

Printmaking and Religious Works

Printmaking remained a constant throughout Fell’s career, an area of consistent activity. When he moved his studio, his printing presses would move with him.

Religious imagery also forms a significant strand of Fell’s work. He was a devout Catholic.

Reception and Legacy

In 1999 Fell was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.

The former Tate curator Andrew Wilton described him as “an artist on his own, compelled into independence by a firmly held philosophy and by the confident subjectivity of his approach.”

The Michael Fell Estate now maintains the archive, supports research and exhibitions, and oversees work toward a catalogue raisonné.