Mike Hall

Crowded urban scenes, architecture and maps – the things you see today in Mike Hall’s artwork go back to his creative beginnings. As a child he used to love drawing images full of people, and maps of imaginary towns and even entire countries. He says this might be because he grew up in the new town of Harlow in Essex – the modern, pre-planned, post-war setting gave him an interest in architecture, topography and mapping from an early age. Of course, he liked comics and picture books too, and today he’s also inspired by William Hogarth, Gustave Doré and Wenceslaus Hollar, as well as MacDonald Gill, an artist who embellished his map illustrations with all kinds of colourful motifs. He loves everything Hispanic, which is why he recently relocated to Spain.