Michael Salaman was born in Porlock, Devon in 1911. He studied at the Slade School of Art from 1928-30 and at the Ruskin School, Oxford from 1930-31. From 1931-32 he worked independently in London on portrait commissions and stage decor, and studied stage decor and sculpture part-time at the Slade. He workedfor the Shell Advertising Agency for six months from 1932-33.From 1933-39 he lived in Paris and Montmorency where he met Natasha Borissoff whom he later married. He studied at the Academie Ranson from 1933-34. During the Second World War, he served as a driver in the Auxilliary Ambulance Service from 1940-42 and was then conscripted into the army. He served with MI6 in North Africa and Belgium from 1942-46.
After the War, he taught at the Camberwell School of Art and Craft, Chelsea School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. He had a retrospective exhibition at the Morley Gallery in 1975 and further one person shows at Browse and Darby in 1982 and 1987. He was awarded a Civil List Pension for services to Art by Her Majesty the Queen in 1977.
His work is represented in several public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the South London Art Gallery. He died in London in March 1987, shortly after the opening of his exhibition at Browse and Darby.