Born in 1951, Michael has exhibited in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Paris and San Miguel de Allende and now London since his first exhibition in 1968.

His father, Dr. Barry French, was a professor and recipient of the Order of Canada, awards from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. Michael´s mother, Gloria French, was a teacher in normal and specialized education most of her life. When Michael was young he lived and travelled with the family extensively throughout Europe which had an influence on his painting subjects in the years to come.

In 1972 Michael met the American realist, Andrew Wyeth, in South Cushing, Maine. Wyeth was supportive while giving Michael valuable advice regarding the art world and painting techniques. Wyeth was a tremendous influence in French’s earlier work. Michael corresponded with Mr. Wyeth, including sending him invitations and catalogues from major exhibitions Michael had in cities such as New York and Paris. In the same year that Michael met Andrew Wyeth, Michael joined the Roberts Gallery in Toronto where he exhibited for the next 25 years. At that time the Roberts Gallery was definitely one of the most prestigious galleries in Canada representing artists such as A.J.Casson, Lemieux and Tom Forrestal. The early shows in the Roberts Gallery coincided with a period of time in which Michael was homesteading in Newfoundland, where he mostly survived by hunting moose, caribou, waterfowl, caught fish, cut and chopped firewood to heat his home , heat water and cook with. He spent about half of the day doing survival chores and the other half painting by natural light. Sometimes Michael would go into the country or Barrens of Newfoundland and lived off the land using his survival skills for two or three months at a time as well as drawing and photographing subjects for his paintings every day. All of his paintings from this period were painted on an art board composed of acid free paper. He painted in acrylic using watercolor techniques. His subjects were often the ocean, buildings, wildlife and people.

After the homesteading period he moved to Quebec on New Year’s day 1983 where he lived alternately between two residences, an apartment with a large bay window overlooking the Plains of Abraham in old Quebec City and a stone farmhouse dating back to the “Regime Francais” on the Ile D´Orleans which had a view towards the estuary of the St. Lawrence River. During the Quebec years (1983 to 2002), Michael painted on solid acrylic panels. His subjects were similar to the Newfoundland subjects, but often were more surrealistic and painted from memory. In the mid 80’s, Michael entered the Basmadjian Gallery in Paris. There he had group exhibitions and a major solo exhibition in 1987.

As a result, Richard Humphrey, a dealer from New York, invited Michael to exhibit in the Humphrey Gallery in the East Village. Michael exhibited there until the early 90s and had a major exhibition in the Humphrey when it opened the new gallery on Broadway in SoHo. After the Humphrey gallery years, Michael worked with James Whitfield in New York, a former dealer with the Findlay Gallery. He had an exhibition in the Dennis Di Lorenzo Gallery just off Madison and 62nd and two exhibitions in the Forbes Gallery Museum just north of Washington Square on Fifth Avenue in conjunction with James. Michael has had a long professional relationship and friendship with the Forbes family which exists to this day. The Forbes family has acquired 18 of his paintings over the years. The last commission was a portrait of Adelaide Forbes, Christopher (Kip) Forbes´ granddaughter, in 2012. Michael worked with the Hammer Gallery in New York for three years after his exhibition in the year 2000 in the Forbes Museum. After Michael´s second exhibition in the Forbes Museum in 2008, he was represented by the Findlay Gallery in New York for a short period of time. In New York, Michael has had four solo exhibitions (including two museum shows) and was represented by five different galleries and James Whitfield.At the end of 2002, Michael moved to San Miguel De Allende where he now resides partially with his Mexican/ Canadian family. He works in his studio most days except for vacation time spent on the family´s 49 foot Hinckley sailboat, sailing on the Pacific Coast of Mexico or in Canada. His subjects include seascapes, San Miguel street scenes, and French harbor subjects such as in the village of Honfleur, still lives, people and landscapes of Canada. The move to Mexico coincided with Michael´s work becoming more focused on hyper-realism than the partially surrealist work of the Quebec period. In Canada Michael worked with the Roberts gallery for 25 years from 1972 to 1997. In 2005, Michael started working with the prestigious Kinsman Robinson Gallery in Toronto but the relationship ended with his last exhibition there in the Fall of 2021 with the closure of the gallery because of the Covid pandemic. They had many successful exhibitions over those 15 years. In the Fall of 2021, after leaving the Kinsman Robinson Gallery, Michael started working with a marvelous gallery in London England called Diplomat Treasures International. The owner and curator, Andre Van Hese, invited Michael to exhibit there after seeing his last exhibition in the Kinsman Robinson Gallery. Diplomat Treasures International gallery is on 25 Church Street in central London in a walking district, roughly halfway between Regents Park and Hyde Park near the American University.