Mike Bernard RI was born in 1957, trained at the West Surrey College of Art & Design, Farnham, and followed this with postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in 1997. Mike has used paper collage for several years and has developed a highly original and appealing style. As a base to his paintings it has allowed him to create abstract structures that in turn develop into those happy accidents which pull the whole composition together. This method allows pictures to evolve their own personality as they progress, and thus avoiding them becoming over-representational.