"We each recall our reluctance to leave a magnificent place, of stopping and turning back for a long look. 

Those are the places I paint and sketch, moments that give me a deep sense of joy." 

Michael’s primary subjects are Western Colorado and Utah desert scenes. He paints his smaller pieces on location. 

Larger landscapes are based on his outside sketches, abstracts on interesting textures and potent shapes in Nature. 

Michael’s more recent “fluid landscapes” are a synthesis of his landscapes and abstracts, and were central to his successful shows at art galleries in his area of Colorado, including the Art Base in Basalt, and the Red Brick Center for the Arts in Aspen, Colorado. 

Many suggest that his paintings instill peace. 

Michael hopes they offer a brief refuge from our increasingly disturbing political situation.    

He has shown his paintings all over the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado in galleries and community venues. Also, he does commissioned work. A resident of Old Snowmass, Colorado, Michael is also a facilitator and mediator, was an elected county commissioner from ’75 to ’85, and worked for Rocky Mountain Institute from ’83 to 2016.

For fifty years, Michael has been fortunate to live in the mountains of Colorado, each year more profoundly enthralled by the magic of the natural world. Many of Michael’s paintings pursue that magic, reflecting time-honored schools of landscape painting. Other canvases spin into abstraction, many interpreting natural phenomena, especially rock textures and patterns. Occasionally, Michael has experimented with paintings that accentuated, even exaggerated the sinuous shapes in nature; some obvious, others obscure. 

Since early 2019, and more so during the covid isolation, he has explored this idea more deeply, which is reflected in his Fluid Landscapes paintings. Early twentieth-century Canadian painters, Emily Carr and Franklin Carmichael inspired Michael to expand his work in this area — now his primary focus. 

Despite the apparent serenity and immutability of Michael’s landscapes, the viewer may detect the feeling, as the artist clearly does, that these beloved scenes are fragile and in jeopardy. Michael has been an advocate for these places for his entire adult life. 

Michael’s primary subjects are Western Colorado and Southeast Utah. He paints his smaller pieces on site. Larger landscapes are based on his outside sketches, his abstracts on interesting textures and potent shapes in Nature. He works primarily in oil, occasionally in acrylic, especially for abstracts. Supports include stretched canvas, board, canvas on board, burlap, and wallboard mud with sand. 

Michael has lived in the Roaring Fork valley of Colorado since 1970. He is a conflict-resolution practitioner and facilitator, was a county commissioner from ’75 to ’85, and worked for Rocky Mountain Institute from ’83 to 2016. 

Galleries      

2020/22 Jones Gallery, Kansas City MO 

2021/22 The Art Base, Basalt        

2020/21 R Gallery, Boulder             

2020 Dragonfly Blue Gallery, Taos NM       

2010-20 Toklat Gallery, Basalt (and earlier in Ashcroft)      

2014/15  809 Gallery, Glenwood Springs            

2001 Redstone Art Center           

2009 Aspen Artists Cooperative, Aspen Highlands            

1999 Woody Creek Art Studio, Woody Creek           

1995 Upper Edge Gallery, Aspen           

1968 A Houston gallery which name he can’t recall

Corporate Collections 

PARC Aspen, Aspen CO

Rocky Mountain Institute, Basalt CO 

Valley View Hospital, Glenwood Springs CO

Community Venues 

Many exhibitions, Including juried shows, for thirty years: 

Aspen Art Museum, Aspen Co

Red Brick Center for the Arts, Aspen CO

Aspen Chapel Gallery, Aspen Co

Snowmass Chapel, Snowmass Village CO

First Bank, Carbondale CO

Basalt Library, Basalt CO

Snowmass Club Villas, Snowmass Village CO

Carbondale Arts, Carbondale (including a solo show in ‘05)

Aspen Valley Land Trust, art showings

Wilderness Workshop, artist in residence

Redstone Art Foundation Labor Day Art Festivals

World Cup window exhibit, Aspen CO

Aspen Center for Environmental Studies exhibit, Aspen CO

Glenwood Springs Art Festival, Glenwood Springs CO

Mining Museum, Leadville CO

Community Bank, Basalt CO

Alpine Bank, Snowmass Village CO

Vectra Bank, Aspen CO