Michael Cooper NEAC 1943 - 2025
​An artist’s life
Saturday 6th - Sunday 14th December
11am - 4pm (Closed Monday)
The Star Brewery is honoured to host the exhibition An artist's life celebrating the remarkable works created throughout the lifetime of Mike Cooper. Mike was an extraordinary artist whose creativity and dedication left a lasting mark on both the local and national art communities, as well as on the Star Brewery itself.
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During the 1980s, he played a vital role in saving the historic Star Brewery from demolition. It was transformed into a thriving centre for creativity — home to artist workshops — and in 1989 the Gallery first opened its doors, becoming an invaluable art space for the town that we continue to enjoy today.
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Curated by his son, Richard Cooper, this exhibition stands as a tribute to Mike Cooper’s talent and lifelong artistic passion.
“In painting you can attend as you create: the accidents of the paint often give back more than what you consciously willed. Mike Cooper half ordains, half lets happen a complex confusion of colour traces, then hones it into its own distinctive
orderliness. His procedures are ver y much his own, evolved over a long gestation without forming influence of an art school or any single dominant mentor. But they are quite distinctly those of a man passionate about oil painting, and entirely at
home in his passion.”
Julian Bell.
​Michael Cooper NEAC lived in Lewes and worked here in the Star Brewery for much of his life. With his wife Pat and a core of like -minded artists and makers, Mike was instrumental in transforming the building from a derelict Brewery to
affordable art and craft studios that have nur tured and showcased the work of a huge number of creators over many years.
Picking up a formidable range of skills from picture restoration and the painting of commercial potboilers to earn a living, and with an innate, highly sophisticated colourist’s eye, Mike’s entirely self-taught methods and working processes evolved
organically, leading him to develop his own highly distinctive style, earning him membership of the prestigious New English Art Club.
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Mike continued painting until he passed away at the age of 82 in Summer 2025. This retrospective explores the work of an endlessly curious mind, touching on some of his familiar themes in the space he loved and helped create.
In Memory of Michael Cooper
​​​​​​​​​​‘I first picked up a paint-brush when I was fourteen, and it changed my life’
The first, and only time I heard dad say those words was the day before he died.
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Following that formative moment aged 14, Dad began a lifelong career in the artworld, and love for all things ‘art’ lasting 68 years. Over that time-span, dad produced thousands of pieces over a broad spectrum of styles, subjects and mediums.
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Abstracts, figures, still-life, sketches, cartoons, historical subjects, religious icons, portraits, local scenes, foreign observations and landscapes - all came within his choice of subject matter.
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He used paints of all kinds (predominately oils) and became a master of colour and composition.
He never stopped innovating and developing. Classic landscapes, figures and forms often meeting bright but muted colouring, and rough new textures. And over the years a consistent style emerged - undeniably his own. I feel this retrospective exhibition, reveals how a personal artistic voice is found and nurtured over a lifetime.
What’s so surprising to many people who’ve seen dad’s work, is the fact that he never went to Art School. He was almost completely self-taught; because of this, he always felt himself as an outsider when talking and working with other artists who had had an artistic background or education.
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Dad did have some guidance at the beginning when he moved down to Brighton from Birmingham with his parents in 1959. By 1961, dad was working closely with the colourfully named hell-raiser St John James Drinkwater Earp, who was a Surrealist Painter and picture restorer, then later a perhaps (only slightly) safer pair of hands in the trade, for another well named gentleman, Bertie Boast.
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It was during this time that he learnt many of the skills which would provide him with the means to earn a living.
In 1974, we moved as a family to Lewes, and here dad continued his restoration work alongside the continued development of his personal artistic style, which he regularly sold through local galleries and word of mouth. On top of all this, he painted what he called ‘pot-boilers’ – Victorian scenes painted on wooden panels, such as fox-hunting, horse racing, stage coaches and agricultural vistas.
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In 1986, with a group of friends, dad got involved with saving this old Star Brewery building from demolition.
His idea of turning the building into affordable workshops and studios for Lewes artists came to fruition, and the Star Gallery was officially opened in 1989. My mum Patrica, ran the gallery for the next fifteen years, organising exhibitions which included many world famous names such as Andy Warhol, Sir Hugh Casson, Henry Moore, Paula Rego and Christopher Le Brun.
Dad had many exhibitions at the Star over the years, as well as being a member of the New England Art Club (NEAC) from 2004.
He also exhibited at galleries around London, including the Royal Academy, Chris Beetles, Bruton Gallery, Bankside, Ingo Finke, Thompsons Gallery and many others across the South of England.
Going through his archives since his death this June, I’ve discovered a treasure trove of paintings, drawings and countless pieces of ephemera baring dad’s distinctive mark.
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Dad did an incredible job of cataloguing his work, an invaluable habit he picked up way back as a developing artist. It helped enormously when assembling this snapshot exhibition of his remarkable career.
I miss him terribly, but the blessing of productive, creative people is that they leave so much of their life-spirit behind. To interpret quite clearly, what dad was trying to communicate through his art, over his lifetime, is a wonderful legacy to remember him by.
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I hope you enjoy following his artistic journey through this retrospective exhibition, and I’m very pleased that Dad picked up that paintbrush in 1957, as an inquisitive fourteen year old lad from Birmingham, a moment which did indeed, change his life forever.
Richard Cooper
September 2025