Michael French was born in 1951. Over the past 57 years he has exhibited in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Paris and San Miguel de Allende, Carmel and London. Michael moved to England in 1957 where he started school. 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 hyper-realist, Andrew Wyeth, in South Cushing, Maine. In those days the American critics called the movement “magic realism”. 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 survived by hunting moose, caribou, waterfowl, caught fish. He 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 then were often the ocean or landscapes, 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 Français” 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 on the Blvd. Raspail. 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 Gallery when it opened the new location on Broadway in SoHo. After the Humphrey gallery years, Michael worked with James Whitfield in New York, as his agent who was a former dealer with the Findlay Gallery. Michael had two exhibitions in the Forbes Gallery Museum just north of Washington Square on Fifth Avenue in conjunction with Whitfield. Michael has had a long professional relationship and friendship with the Forbes family which exists to this day. The Forbes family, have acquired 18 of his paintings over the years. The last commission was a portrait of Adelaide Forbes, Christopher (Kip) Forbes´ granddaughter, in 2012. French had an exhibition in the Dennis Di Lorenzo Gallery just off Madison and 62nd where Robert Goelet, the chairman of the New York Historical Society acquired a painting and commissioned Michael to do a painting on Gardiners Island, which he and Alexandra his wife owned, off the Hamptons in New York. Michael worked with the Hammer Galleries in New York for many 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 had four solo exhibitions (including two museum shows) and was represented by five different galleries and worked with the late James Whitfield for about 20 years as his agent from the beginning 90s to 2010.

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 when on vacation which is often spent on his 46 foot Hinckley sailboat, sailing on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. His subjects include seascapes, or seascapes, street or urban scenes, still-lives and occasionally people 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 2021 Michael started working with Diplomat Treasures International Gallery in London, England. The owner and curator, Andre Van Hese, invited Michael to exhibit there after seeing his last exhibition in the Kinsman Robinson Gallery. Andre is an international authority on icons and is on the board of directors of ‘’ The Icon Museum and Study Centre ‘’ in Clinton, Massachusetts, which is the biggest icon museum in the US. Michael had two exhibitions with the DTI Gallery in the fall of 2023 and in the fall of 2024. Andre is a gallery director and senior international banker with the Mitsubishi Bank in London. In 2025 Andre exhibited Michael’s work in ‘’The Gallery’’ space on Church street in Marylebone, London which was used exclusively for Michael’s paintings.

In 2026 Michael entered into relationship with the Plus One Gallery in London which represents Michael exclusively all around the world except for a few paintings that Paul Robinson of the Kinsman Robinson gallery has in Canada. The Plus One gallery is a 1st string, international gallery that has cornered the majority of the world market in hyper-realism over the last 25 years and handles exclusively hyper-realist artists. Maggie Bollaert, who essential runs the gallery (with her team of course, including Colin and Maria) has published many books on hyper-realism and is accepted as an international authority on this genre by the public, her artists and peers.