Influenced by the paintings of Toulouise Loutrec, John Singer Sargent, Norman Rockwell, Malcolm Liepke and Milt Kobayashi, Michael Carson is primarily a figurative artist who likes to tell a story. His figures usually find themselves in bars, nightclubs, cafes, and jazz clubs; even at home in intimate settings.
His volition is to emphasize relationships of color and light and allow the texture of his brush stroke to move the viewer’s eye through the art. “I like the fact that the face can be such a subtle subject and one brush stroke can be the difference in the feel of the entire piece.
That gives me the ability to work in one subject matter and still find that I learn something new in every painting. I love to incorporate my love of design, fashion and architecture into my work. My nondescript surroundings help me to create a mood or a story that I am trying to relay through my painting.
Seeing how the work evolves, the subtle and drastic differences, and looking forward to the future is what keeps me painting. I view a painting as a success when I take from it something new that follows me into my next work. It’s just learning to become a better painter.”
Michael Carson was born in 1972 in Minneapolis, and graduated from the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Design. Working as a graphic artist, he painted his first painting three years after graduating from college. He knew he had found his calling and in 2001, started painting full time.
Images courtesy of Michael Carson
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