About Gary Michael - landscape and portrait artist

Biography

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Gary started drawing as a child. He attended college on a tennis scholarship, and went on to earn multiple postgraduate degrees and become a university professor before retiring from academia to pursue his passion for painting.

Although he continues to consider Denver his home, Gary divides his time between Colorado and such diverse locations as Mexico, Nepal and Europe. He has earned acclaim as a mountain climber, author and public speaker (http://www.drgarymichael.com). Art collectors prize both his landscapes and figurative work.

Gary makes his work available for galleries, private purchase, image reproduction, and commissions. He prefers commissions where the client wants the artist's vision to influence the painting rather than the photographic reproduction of a scene or person. His original paintings range from $400 to $12,000.

One Hundred Portraits

During his one-person show at the Saks Gallery in 1986, Gary painted a small portrait of gallery owner Lemmon Saks. Soon after that he did another of art critic Robert Hughes and looked forward to a future show in which he could exhibit these and one of his annual self-portraits side by side as “Art Seller,” “Art Writer,” and “Art Maker.”

But Gary didn’t stop there. He kept painting portraits of famous artists (painters, musicians, dancers, sculptors, architects) and writers. “It became a hobby,” says Gary. “Whenever I came across a black and white photo of an artist I admired, I painted him or her, guessing at the skin tones and eye color. That was the challenge and much of the fun.” Gary’s other criterion was that the person have an interesting face. “Why paint someone like Carl Jung, however much I admire him. He looks like a bank president.”

Gary calls the portraits a hobby because he has no illusions about their commercial value. “People may love Monet, Mark Twain, Tolstoy, and Tennessee Williams but aren’t eager to decorate their homes with these guys’ faces. I sell landscapes and still lifes but just keep accumulating portraits.” The accumulation reached one hundred with the completion of Peter Matthiessen in May of 2003. “He has a beautiful face, deeply lined with penetrating blue-gray eyes,” says Gary. “I got liberal with the paint and reckless with the color.”

In 2000, twenty of the portraits, including Robert Frost, Picasso, William Burroughs, Eudora Welty, Ayn Rand, Eugene Ionescu, and Luigi Pirandello, found their way onto the walls of Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art as part of a show called "Real To Surreal". Only a few others have ever gone on public exhibition. The artist did realize a small sum on the series when an art professor who saw the museum show invited him to give a slide presentation to her class. Michael jokes, “They paid me $40, my sole profit on the portraits so far. That’s ok; I enjoy having a hobby, especially one that keeps me at the easel.”

Education:
    Pomona College
    Denver University, BA
    Colorado University, MA
    University of Chicago, Divinity School
    University of Syracuse, PhD

Individual instruction from:
    Ned Jacob, Pawel Kontny, William Sharer, David Leffel, Burt Silverman

Workshops attended:
    Richard Schmid, Buffalo Kaplinski, Robert Wood, Sergei Bongart, Mario Cooper

Selected Museums & Private Collections:

The Harmsen Collection in the Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
The Western Colorado Center For The Arts, Grand Junction, Colorado
Stroh Family Collection, Colorado

One-Person Shows:

Saks Gallery, Denver
Western Colorado Art Museum, Grand Junction, CO
Savageau Gallery, Denver
Park Place Gallery, San Angelo, TX
Pratt Community College, Pratt, KS
Abend Gallery, Denver, Colorado

Juried & Invitational Shows:

All Colorado Art Exhibition, Denver
Belleli Gallery, Denver
Denver Botanic Gardens Exhibition, Denver
International Association of Pastel Societies, Denver
Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
Museum of Fine Art, Colorado Springs, CO
Museum of the Hudson Highlands, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY
Pastel Society of America, New York
Rocky Mountain National Park 75th Anniversary, Boulder, CO
Rocky Mountain Water Media, Golden, CO
Vanier & Roberts, Ltd., Scottsdale, AZ

Books Listed In:

American Artists, 1985
Contemporary Western Artists, 1982
Davenport’s Art Reference, 2004
New York Art Review
Southwestern Art – Master Index – 1971-1993
The Artist’s Blue Book, 2004
Who’s Who in American Art, 1986
Who’s Who in American Art, 1993-1994
Who’s Who in American Art, 2003-2004
The Landscape Artist's Drawing Bible, Chartwell Books, London

Work Featured in:

Periodicals:
- American Artist
- Art & Artists
- Art Show News
- Art Voices
- Art West
- Artists & Illustrators
- Colorado Homes and Lifestyles
- Colorado Monthly (cover)
- Colorado Quarterly
- Contemporary Western Artist
- Craft Range
- Denver Post
- Palette Talk
- Pastel Artist International
- Revue
- Rocky Mountain News
- Southwest Art
- The Artist's Magazine
- Today’s Art & Graphics
Books:
- Drawing Lessons, Quarto, 2003
- Learning from the Pros (Watson-Guptill)
- Model, Nederlandstalige, 2003 (cover art)
- One Hundred Great Pastel Tips (Batsford Ltd, London)
- Painting Shapes & Edges
- The Artist’s Bible (Barnes & Noble)
- The Encyclopedia of Drawing Techniques
- The Gold Book
- Tonal Values (North Light)

Workshops and Classes Taught:

Art Students League, Denver
Camp Laforet, Carbondale, CO
Casa Feliz Workshops, Taos, NM
Colorado Institute of Art
Denver Art Museum
Emory and Henry College, VA
Mendocino Art Center, CA
Rocky Mountain School of Design
Tulsa Art Association, Tulsa, OK
Allied Artists of Nebraska, North Platte, NE
Museum of Western History, Denver
Oklahoma Speakers Association, Stroud, OK
Pastel Society of Texas, Dallas, TX
Pratt Community College, Pratt, KS
Sedona Art Workshops, Sedona, AZ
Wyoming Art Association, Casper, WY
Flying Colors Workshops, Acapulco and Oaxaca, Mexico

Work Reproduced By:

Jannes Fine Art Publishing, Chicago – six images as prints
Leanin’ Tree – three images on greeting cards