Mike Cairncross born in Leith, Edinburgh, painted and carved from his teenage years, he went on to Duncan Jordonston College of Art in Dundee graduating in 1981. During his final year, he won a prize for Enterprise Scotland, and later had work shown through the RSA and the RGIFA, receiving an award through the RSA. He qualified as a teacher and travelled to the Emirates where he taught for some years. Here he produced paintings and some carvings. On returning to the UK, he lived and worked in England, Orkney, then Easter Ross where he began producing stonework using Ledmore marble and Portsoy marble. In 2012 a family break up and an RTA with a drunk driver meant that stonework had to go on hold. Mike took the opportunity to travel and visit family in NZ, where he produced a few paintings and some stone pieces using the local stone. The damage caused by the RTA meant that he spent a lot of time trying to regain his fitness. Stone carving is a very physical activity. He spent his time trying to develop a history, telling the story in visual terms of the wars of independence.
On the return from NZ Mike stopped over in Odessa in the Ukraine, where he worked on his written work and did a range of portraits. After extensive physio, Mike has slowly started produce stonework again but in a much more limited way.
' The marble that I use is the star with the beauty of the finished work revealed. The shapes are simple but the stone is beautiful,almost fluid in nature'