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Mike MacNeil, a decorative painter with a contracting and teaching career based in Southern California has received the highest honor of professional recognition in the painting trade:  Freeman of the Trade. Bestowed on Mike MacNeil by the Worshipful Company of Painters, London. From the oldest painters union in the world, this title is a step above that of Master Painter.  MacNeil was admitted as a freeman during ceremony held on March 14, 1995 and is the first person born in North America to receive this honor. Freedom of the Company of Painters' puts MacNeil in the same circle of professionalism as famed 19th century decorative painter Thomas Kershaw.

Professional Painter

After Canadian-born Mike MacNeil served a tour of duty in the Canadian Navy, he served a four year union apprenticeship in Vancouver, British Columbia. During this apprenticeship, MacNeil was taught the trade by an Italian master painter, who had learned painting from his father before immigrating to Canada after World War II. After his apprenticeship, MacNeil moved to the U.S. and started his own painting firm, where he gradually introduced designers and other clients to decorative painting possibilities. Within a few years, MacNeil was swamped with decorative painting work from local designers ... first in high-end clothing and jewelry stores and later in private residences, hotel ball rooms, casinos and restaurants.

Proud History

In becoming a Freeman of the Trade, MacNeil steps into a proud tradition. The medieval Guilds of London were originally religious fraternities, each united under the patronage of its particular saint. St. Luke was the patron of painters as church tradition credits him as a painter of  religious art. Members of these Guilds wore distinctive uniforms, or "liveries," signifying their trade. These guilds later became prosperous and powerful craft guilds. The Painter's company traces it's founding back to two crafts, the Painters and the Stainers. In the 13th century, the term "painters" referred to those craftsmen who executed their work upon wood, wooden panels, metal and the like, while "stainers" included those who stained or painted canvas and other cloth. The earliest reference to the Stainers' fraternity was in 1268. The painters' fraternity is found mentioned in records as early as 1283. In 1502, the two craft guilds petitioned the Lord Mayor of London for their union into one craft.

Road to the Title

Mike MacNeil first came to the attention of the painters' Company in 1993, while he was in Great Britain to research the decorative painting techniques of Thomas Kershaw, the 19th century British painter considered to be the greatest wood grainer and marbler of all times. During 1994, MacNeil was invited by the Painters' Company to submit samples of his decorative painting painting as a prerequisite for admission to the Company. Seven panels were submitted and judged by artists, interior designers, architects and painters.

Next, MacNeil was interviewed by representatives of the Company, on his knowledge of the trade. During the panel judging and interview, had one person of the Company objected to MacNeil's workmanship or professional presentation he would have been denied an invitation to join the Painters' Company. Subsequent to the evaluation, two of MacNeil's panels were placed on exhibit in London. The exhibit, sponsored by Sir Roger DeGray President of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, was opened by the Lord Mayor of London. Among other works in the exhibit were two panels by Thomas Kershaw.

Shortly thereafter, MacNeil was formally invited to join The Worshipful Company of Painters. In March, he went to Painters' Hall in London for formal induction into the Painters' Company. William Holgate, a decorative painter from Great Britain, was the only other painter inducted into the Company at that time. The inductees were presented before the Master of the Company, Richard Biscoe-Taylor, and the Court. Each affirmed their allegiance to the Queen; were individually welcomed into the Company by the Master, and were presented with their Certificate of Freedom. The ceremony was followed by a formal dinner, at which time speeches were delivered by the The Right Honorable Michael Morris, Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker, and by Sir Denis Thatcher, husband of the former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. A reception followed the dinner. Mike MacNeil returned to London later that spring and became a Freeman of the City and Guilds of London.

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