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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.
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In 2002, Michael graduated from
Wake Forest University 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. His main contemporary role models
include landscape painters Clyde Aspevig and Scott Christensen. Historical favorites are John Singer Sargent, Carl Rungius, the
California Impressionists, Nicolai Fechin, Albert Bierstadt, 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 lights. 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
artwork and to create windows to the natural world that are restorative
to the human spirit."
Michael
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