Abstract painting can seem difficult at first, but difficulty is not the same as inaccessibility. It can, in fact, be unexpectedly absorbing.
Think about memory. When I recall childhood summers, I remember endless blue skies and playing outside. It feels as though it never rained. Of course, it did. Memory does not record events faithfully; it assembles them. Fragments are sharpened, others fade, and over time they are recomposed into something that feels whole, even if it is inaccurate.
Paintings work in a similar way.
At first glance, an abstract painting may appear simple or even empty. If you stay with it a little longer, relationships begin to form. Areas that seemed uniform start to shift. Depth, movement, or tension may emerge. The painting begins to ask something of you, sometimes even whether it feels alive.
Rather than trying to understand the painting immediately, allow yourself to look long enough for your perception to settle. This usually happens naturally once your attention has been captured.
You might ask yourself:
- What do I notice first, and what changes as I continue to look?
- Where does my eye rest, and where does it hesitate?
- Does the painting create a mood, a pressure, or a sense of space?
- Am I affected by it, even if I cannot say why?
Some paintings are deliberately ambiguous. Some may even feel like paintings “of nothing”. That, too, is a valid experience.
There is no correct reading. What matters is not decoding the painting, but noticing how it unfolds while you are with it.
My artistic statement
I aspire to capture that moment when art resonates with our senses, evoking both emotional and intellectual reactions.
When art achieves this, it assumes a profound significance in our lives. It is in this essence of being indispensable that the true value of art manifests. Each painting, in this light, always tells the truth.
As abstractions, my art evokes the free spirit, and with that fluidity capture the removal of boundaries and barriers to expression to surprise the senses and delight the viewer with the unexpected.
Brief bio
I am a Canadian with my career starting at McMaster University and the associated teaching hospital in Canada. I then moved to the UK where I worked across Europe for many years in a consultancy capacity. I have met wonderful people on projects in Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Malta, Czech Republic, Spain and others as well as Asia / Pacific.
I have studied still life painting, Japanese brush painting as well as studio photography and tapestry. I have benefited from the Turps art school mentoring programme in London. I have experience in art photography, commercial photography, textile design and tapestry, and draw on a wide range of creative sources.
I also enjoy writing about art and have published a number of articles, such as in Art of England (now ceased publication) and have written a booklet on how to liberate your creativity through abstract art — anyone can be an artist and you do not need to be able to draw.
I enjoy exhibiting my work and meeting people who have an interest in art. My work is in private collections in Canada, UK, USA, Belgium, France, Malta, and other countries.
I am also a healthcare specialist with a career working with governments, hospitals, insurers, the health professions and industry (pharma/devices, life sciences). I have advised on a variety of important issues to improve healthcare such as counterfeit medicines, the healthcare workforce, hospital management, quality, patient’s experience of care, treatment pathways, and so on.
My current work focuses on making AI/machine learning useful in clinical work for doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and others, with a view to improving the quality of decision making and use of information.
Mike