The Artist:

Michael Flahault

Michael was born in Montreal, and was raised in almost equal parts in Montreal, Paris and London. He is a self-taught artist, with a graduate degree in International Relations from McGill University, coming to art full-time in 1995 only after a career in other fields.

Known in wider circles for his aviation art, in which he won 13 awards at international exhibitions over a period of 6 years, including a Best of Show at the prestigious SimuFlite "Horizons of Flight" exhibition in 1998 (as well as two Awards of Merit, making him the first artist ever to win three awards at a single show), he has an equal fascination with all forms and subjects, portraits being perhaps his favorite.

He works equally well in oils, oil glaze and watercolour.

Among his past clients are the Canada Aviation Museum, Canadian Forces Museum of Aerospace Defence, the O'Keefe family, hockey legend Guy Lafleur, Bell Helicopter, Execair Inc. (Innotech), SimuFlite, CAE (before CAE and SimuFlite merged), the Canadian Business Aircraft Association, as well as many other individuals and private collections, as far away as Australia.

In 2001, in conjunction with General Maurice Baril, then Chief of Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces, he created the idea, and wrote the proposal for, a program which has become the Canadian Forces Artists Program ( Canadian Forces Artist Project (CFAP) ). Artists, sponsored by the Armed Forces, are given responsible assignments to portray the Canadian Armed Forces in all its roles, going worldwide to do so. In exchange, the artists donate works back to the Armed Forces. In 2004-2005, Michael  served as the representative artist on the Selection Advisory Committee ( CFAP Advisory Committee ), along with representatives from the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the Canada Council for the Arts, the History and Heritage department of the Armed Forces, the National Library of Canada, and the Senate.

Michael resides in Kingston, Ontario. More about the artist

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