Philip Reeves was born in Cheltenham in 1931. He studied at Cheltenham School of Art. He was elected RSW in 1959 and Fellow of the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers in 1963. He was elected RSA in 1976 and RGI in 1981.
As Head of Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art, Reeves has influenced many artists across the country and the generations. He is well known for his etchings, collages and paintings. In many of his works his purposeful and sensitive use of collage helps to emphasise the features of the landscape, the texture of the earth and rock, and the faults and fissures on the cliff faces. In other works it is the physical shape of the landscape which seems to concern him.
He has had solo shows in the Fine Art Society, London; Compass Gallery & Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow.