Mike Dodd was born in 1950 and brought up in central London. He gained a Diploma in Art & Design from Chelsea School of Art in 1972. Following a period of travelling and working in a variety of jobs to fund his travels, before settling in Norwich in the early 1980s.
During the next two decades, Mike pursued a career as a freelance illustrator, working mainly through illustration agencies in London, Cambridge and Norwich. He originated the ideas for, and illustrated, two children’s picture books of his own (published by Methuen and Hamish Hamilton) besides working on a wide range of commissions for various publishers and design groups.
Following a move to live in southern France in 2002, he began to explore the possibilities of producing artwork from self-generated ideas. He completed an MA in Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art (UWIC) in 2008 and his final degree piece was chosen as that year’s ‘MAstar’ by Axis artists’ resources organisation. The next year he joined his American brother-in-law on a 1000-mile, six weeks long raft trip down the Mississippi River. This experience ignited his interest in ‘land art’ and led to the creation of several large installations using natural materials in both the UK and USA. He worked on two artist’s residencies in Scotland – one at ‘Outlandia’ in Glen Nevis (2015) and the other at Inverewe Gardens, Wester Ross (2017).
Returning to live in Norfolk in 2020, he rediscovered his love of drawing and painting to produce a series of works revolving around trees as a central subject.