About the Artist

Michael’s fascination in the arts has been apparent from an early age. While growing up in  Nashville,  TN, he actively pursued what artistic avenues he could, taking lessons in various media, studying art history, and visiting all the art collections that were available to him. Michael was fortunate to travel a good deal when he was younger. He believes it  fostered an appreciation for the profound effect place can have on a person.

When he was fourteen, the  Griffin family took a cruise up  Alaska’s  Inside Passage.  The experience sparked Michael’s interest for the outdoors, and his imagination wandered from the boat and coastal towns to exploring the mountains. Two years later to satisfy his new fascination with the West, he took a seven week backpacking trip starting from Jackson Hole, Wyoming spanning the American Northwest of Montana, Idaho,  Oregon, and Washington. He followed up the next summer with seven weeks of backpacking, canoeing, and kayaking in  Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Although he was not yet painting the landscapes, their visual power left an indelible mark. This early exposure to the pristine wilderness of the West would eventually lead him back to  Jackson Hole in pursuit of his art education. 

  In 2002, Michael graduated from  Wake Forest University as a Presidential Scholar in Art with a BA in English and a minor in Studio Art. After graduation, he moved to  Atlanta and attended the  Portfolio Center where he would study to become a commercial illustrator. It became apparent almost immediately that his heart was tuned to fine art and oil painting rather than illustration. One instructor with a great interest in traditional painting opened Michael’s eyes to the study of plein air landscape painting.  Shortly thereafter, Michael left for the expansive scenery of  Jackson Hole where he would live, paint outdoors, and take workshops under renowned landscape painters  Scott Christensen ,  Matt Smith, and  Ralph Oberg.

The time in the West of nearly two years has shaped his convictions of what is good art. Contemporary role models include landscape painters Clyde Aspevig, Scott Christensen, Josh Elliott, T. Allen Lawson, Len Chmiel, Matt Smith, and Ralph Oberg . Historical favorites are too many to list, but the following have greatly influenced his artistic path: John Singer Sargent, Carl Rungius, E.T. Compton, the California Impressionists, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church and several French and Russian impressionists. 

Artist Statement

"From the time I was little playing in the wooded hills around my Tennessee home to snow skiing in the Rocky Mountains to climbing massive South Carolina oaks draped in Spanish moss, my upbringing was one intimately connected with nature. It was a childhood steeped in adventure. I fell in love with discovering places and their varied moods, atmospheres, and light. As a grown man, I have tried to retain this childlike sense of wonder in the face of nature while adding the maturity of an artist's critical eye.

My creative process begins on location by making small plein air ('outdoor') paintings in an effort to capture the immediacy and authenticity of being in a place. Although I spend a considerable amount of time painting outdoors, I am careful to distinguish myself from being solely a plein air artist. What I produce in the field is only a raw, honest response to my surroundings, and the majority of my creative work continues in the studio as I compose more balanced and developed works of art. I work exclusively with oil paint on linen panels and build my images through a process of layering the paint, often letting a layer rest for a month or more before reworking the painting.

The well renowned painter and teacher Audrey Flack once said, "Great art is in exquisite balance... It is restorative." My mission is continually to strive for this "exquisite balance" in my art and to create windows to the natural world that are restorative to the human spirit."

Michael