Michael Blaker (1928-2018) studied at the Brighton School of Art under Leslie Cole, Charles Knight and others, and became a writer and artist specialising in etching. In earlier days, he ran his own gallery in Avery Row, New Bond Street, published four issues of his own Art Gazette, and organised an "Artists under Thirty" exhibition at the RBA (Royal Society of British Artists) Galleries. Later he was for ten years editor/designer of the Printmakers Journal, the annual magazine of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, of which he became a Senior Fellow (R.E.). He also contributed many articles to Printmaking Today, of which he became an Editorial Consultant, and wrote extensively for the Artist Magazine, Leisure Painter and Pictures and Prints. He exhibited etchings and paintings in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, and his work is in the Tate Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum Archive Collections. Over a long and productive career, he had many other publications and works to his credit. He lived in Ramsgate, on the Isle of Thanet, where his wife Catriona survives him — Catriona is an author, and a leading light of the Pugin Society, with a particular interest in the Gothic Revival and in nineteenth-century architecture generally.
Created 10 January 2015