Michael Cadman was born in Epsom, Surrey in 1920. He studied at Wimbledon School of Art and at the Royal College of Art, receiving their diploma in 1944. After teaching at Epsom School of Art for 24 years he moved to Cornwall in 1969.

Michael is mainly a landscape painter with special interests in architecture and plant forms; he is best described as a rural painter. For his recent watercolours Michael tends to stick to a limited palette, typically made up to subtle reds and blues and he unifies his paintings by composing each subject of broad flat brushstrokes. The image as a whole is revolved through restrained suggestions of form, generating a strong sense of atmosphere, while the structure of his painting is reinforced through a predominance of vertical and horizontal elements.

Michael has had several one-man shows of which a number have been London. He was elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1970 after first showing with them in 1967. He is not a prolific painter and his work is in considerable demand by both private collectors and institutions.