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F. Michael Wood
TODAY:
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Soulful and captivating...
Focal Point: F. Michael Wood
Visit F. Michael Wood's Canvoo Focal Point on the web
"Soulful and captivating..."
- Informed Collector
Other Web Pages with info about F. Michael Wood
F. Michael Wood's Main Artist Website
Overview:
East of the Moon
Work in Progress
oil 24"x30"
WELCOME TO MY GALLERY!.
I have added a new addition to the gallery: An adjoining Loft where you will find preliminary oil studies, and an assortment of daily small paintings fresh from the easel. These will be available for purchase directly.
No need to climb stairs or walk any farther, just enter by clicking The LOFT link on the menu above.
I hope to be hanging new work there daily, so stay tuned!
Your purchases will also aid in my seemingly futile attempts to teach a struggleing artist who has been hanging around here how to paint..
He has only one ear, and paints the most atrociously bad work, but undernneath that shoddy exterior I believe there is real genious!
Who knows, perhaps this Van Go, or whatever his name is, (What kinda name is that!?) will become a real artist someday! Your continued patronage will assist in this worthy and noble cause!
You who have been friends and regular visitors and collectors for a long while will have noticed that my style has become increasingly more painterly, and impressionistic.
This is the result of a concerted effort to learn to see and grasp the essential elemental energies weaving the visual tapestry..
Nature never fails to compose perfectly, but it is difficult to see the tuned, well choreographed harmonies and rhythmic patterns in her seemingly random dance.
I do hope that my work, like nature, will emulate and radiate energy, and mimic nature's fluid poetic language.
My Mentors are the American Impressionists, particularly J. S. Sargent,
and also the Illustrators from the Golden Age of American Illusration such as Pyle, Cornwell and Wyeth plus many many more.
If I even get close to their level of skill I will be happy!.
To me, every painting contains riddles to solve in a labyrinth of "what ifs". Often, mistakes and wrong turns if recognized as guides will ultimately lead to the most inspired and creative solution. I have learned to trust intuition over intellect in reading a subject, and in evaluating a painting's progress, as it is the most unerring of mentors.
As a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America my commitment to my art, and to my collectors, is to produce the most compelling and distinctive of representational works available in this period.
Representatiom:
Sage Creek Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
www.sagecreekgallery.com
Christopher Queen Galleries, Duncans Mills, CA.
www.christopherqueengalleries.com
The Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA.
www.artonmain.com
Also listed on Ask Art, www.askart.com , The Who's Who Blue Book of Artists.
The final touch in completing a painting is the most difficult one, because there are, often, so many of them!
FMW '08
I have found that in the first day of painting, no matter how carefully I study the subject, I will always misjudge colors, values, proportions, and relationships. Then somehow, by the third day my vision begins to clear, and almost magically I begin to see all that I had missed previously. Therefore, I have now adopted the policy of starting a painting only on the third day!
FMW' '08
Sometimes its painting, sometimes its PAINting,!
FMW '09
COMMISSIONS, PETS, PEOPLE, SCENES: Please contact the artist or galleries to commission a portrait of yourself, that special friend and loved one, or for a favored scene.
Enjoy your tour, and feel free to contact me with any questions.
Thank you, Michael
Below
"Embers"
oil 9"x12"
Biography
B.) 1944, San Francisco, Ca.
Michael resides in the seaside town of Florence, along the dramatic and rugged central Oregon coast.
Our family was stationed in Europe after the war as part of the occupation in Germany in 1946,and then in France in the mid 50's.
I remember as a young boy being fascinated with an old French landscape oil painting which I came across while exploring one of the storerooms of our house. It depicted the river which ran along the edge of the little village of Ardente, France near where we were living. I was hooked on art from that day forward, trying to imagine how it was painted. Oil painting became my objective from then on.
Of course, I didn't realize at the time how difficult a task I had prescribed for myself. To me painting was easy, and fun! That's all that mattered, the hard work was yet to come and with every new painting I feel like I have just begun to see, just begun to understand, just begun to get it for the first time!
Although I have an undergraduate degree, and began having my first one man shows while in college, it is years of life, observation, and hard work which have taught me.
I like to say that I only started painting yesterday, because its true in a way.
Each day is always just the beginning, where there was only ignorance before.
Sometimes I wonder if I can ever match the work of my favorite artists and mentors, J. S. Sargent, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell,
Frank Tenney Johnson, and many others.
This is the challenge, and this is the fun, that gets me into the studio every single day of the year until the sun goes down.
All subjects intrique and inspire me, from the majestic to the commonplace: High mountain scenes, to pebbles in a stream, animals and people, sea and sky, and everything in between. You will begin to see more of an emphasis, going forward, toward "Genre" subjects of people and anilmals in everyday situations and places in my work. I am particularly fond of the Nocturn and the mood it conveys, looking for the embers which glow in the cooling fires of day or the sparkling gems which twinkle in the moonlight..
Regardless of the subject, I am forever determined to comprehend and describe the patterns of nature which seek to bind seemingly disparate elements into one homogeneous whole.
The creation of art is a process which lends pride to humility and humiliates pride! . FMW 2009
MEMBERSHIP:
________________:
Oil Painters of America
Signature Member Status.
www.oilpaintersofamerica.com
COVER ART
_______________
"OFFSHORE BREEZE"
Southwest Art Magazine
30th Anniversary Issue
May, 2002
AWARDS:
___________
:
"TRILOGY"
One of 12 FINALIST AWARDS
presented out of thousands of entries
December 2007, RayMar National Artist's Competition.
www.raymarart.com
"SISTERS"
Juror's Top 50
Internatioal Museum of Contemporary Masters
Salon International 2003
Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art
www.greenhousegallery.com
"THE LETTER"
Juror's top 50 Award
International Museum of Contemporary Masters
Salon International 2006
Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art
www.greenhousegallery.com
"SWEET SORROW"
Finalist-"Portrait and Figure"
The Artist's Magazine
2006
" REDTAIL IN SUMMER MIST"
Top 100 Award of Merit
Arts for the Parks Foundation
2003
"SENTINEL"
Top 100 Award of Merit
Arts for the Parks Foundation
1991
"OUT OF THE BLUE"
2nd Place Award
American Artist Magazine Competition
GALLERY EXHIBITIONS:
________________________
SALON INTERNATIONAL
" Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art
'03, '04., '05, '06, '07, .'08.
OIL PAINTERS of AMERICA
National Exhibitions:
'98, '00, '02, '03, '05. '06
SMALL WORKS NORTH AMERICA
National Juried Competition/exhibition '09
(opening in November)
Greenwich workshop Gallery
www.greenwichworkshopgallery.com
CHRISTOPHER QUEEN GALLERIES
One man show:
May, 2007
May, 2004
Group Shows:
1991 thru 2008
THE GARDEN GALLERY
Group Shows:
1993 thru 2009
PUBLICATIONS::
__________________
POETRY With ART
In Shades of Light and Dark
by
Alice I Stevens
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST MAGAZINE
"100 Ways To Paint: Seascapes, Rivers, and Lakes" 2004
"100 Ways To Paint: People, and Figures" 2003
PRINTS:
__________
:
FAR AWAY"
Bentley Publishing Group
(800) 574-7760
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Christopher Queen Galleries
www.christopherqueengalleries.com
707) 865-1318
The Garden Gallery
www.artonmain.com
650) 712-7777
God is the master artist, and I, merely an apprentice F.M.W. '04
via clintwatson.net
I find F. Michael Wood's paintings captivating
and inspiring for story poems.
After gazing at his "Woodland Concerto"for
about fifteen minutes a story came to mind,
which I put into poetry. I titled it "The Woodland Concerto" which he has posted on his Site with his painting. If anyone wants the
words to this, I will be glad to e-mail them
to you - with his painting above it.
Also his "Far Away" inspired thoughts for a
poem "Hostage" which you will find in my
book "Poetry With Art in Shades of Light
and Dark"
Carry on Michael and all you other great Artists
for your contribution to the world.
Thank you,
Alice I Stevens