I am sorry to have to say this, but for anyone unaware Mike sadly passed away in Decmber of 2009. He will be sorely missed by us all, Martin (Stepson)
It is, I suppose, inevitable that my upbringing has had a profound effect upon what I am, and in turn how my approach to art has developed.
My early years were spent in the Valleys of South Wales - a schizophrenic environment when the landscape of miners' terraced houses clinging to the hillside segues seamlessly into crags and fern-garnished mountainsides, vigorous brooks and secluded woodland. Musicality, lyricism and a love of spoken language are all part of my Welsh heritage and I think they are all discernable in my written works. My father was killed in WW2 and my widowed mother married a man from Manchester in the north-west of England. To say this development was a culture-shock to me is an understatement - I hated my new home, and my new family. Wales was - and remains - the place I call home, though we only visited there each summer holiday every year until my mid-teens.
Apart from those early years and visits, a further two years living semi-rough on the resort coast of North Wales, three years at College in Chester, and a single year working in the Fenlands of East Anglia, I have lived and worked in Manchester. The earthy and grounded tones in my work are directly attributable to my childhood and adolescence in the back streets of this soot-stained, grimy industrial city. My passion - and my life's work - for the education of children with special educational needs arose purely by accident: during the summer of one of those years on the North Wales Coast I worked at a Holiday Camp., and was asked, as a favour, to be 'Uncle' and look after the guests' children, arranging activities etc. The problems of one or two children who simply didn't fit in affected me deeply, and pointed me in the direction of my future career.
If asked what my influences are I could be ridiculously trite and say 'life' and given that I've lived more than sixty reasonably eventful years, there'd be more than a modicum of truth in that. However, in terms of literary influences, here goes: I've always been a voracious and woefully indiscriminate reader, although until I was in my late teens my reading was almost exclusively non-fiction. I was a typical back-street philistine late-fifties teenager interested in birds, booze and Buddy Holly - in that order. It wasn't until I reached my late teens that I began to read anything of interest, but when I did I devoured everything - Satre, Camus, Kerouac, Dostoyevsky, and Nietzsche. Poets included the beat poets Ferlinghetti et al, Blake, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Baudelaire, Rilke, Lorca, Cummings and a selection of contemporary British poets, Dylan Thomas, T S Elliott, Christopher Logue, Ted Hughes and [ironically] Sylvia Plath. Of these, I think only G M Hopkins and Dylan Thomas had any stylistic impact on my work, and then not deliberately.
Until the age of 18 art was of minor importance only - I wrote the odd poem purely as an elaborate 'chat-up line' - but my main academic interest lay in science. It was assumed that I'd go to University and end up in medical research. However, a chance friendship with an art specialist changed all that. After a few visits to pubs I discovered that I was moderately skilled in sketching likenesses: this led to portraits with pastels and then oil-painting. I was hooked. My friend sent a folio of my work to an art college and I was offered a place, much to my mother's dismay and disgust, because I'd also been offered places at Oxford and at Aberystwyth Universities to read sciences.
The upshot was that, after a catastrophic row, I turned down all the offers, left home and for two years drifted aimlessly in North Wales hardly earning enough to feed and house myself let alone afford to buy art materials. The experience with children in the holiday camp seemed like the answer to my problem - I could have a 'proper job' and still have time to make pictures and write. I made my peace with my mother, did a year's unqualified teaching to be sure I'd made the right choice, and as a compromise accepted a Teacher Training Course specialising in Art and in Human & Social Biology. At college, I exhibited and sold my first pictures and also had some poems published in college magazines.
For ten years I combined committed teaching with a moderately successful period of art production. Headship, however, requires a great deal more involvement, and the amount of spare time for painting and writing diminished year by year, until by my mid-forties I was totally wrapped up in my work to the exclusion of every other interest. My son's suicide changed all that. Art provided an essential outlet for the mental devastation of this tragedy, and for the trauma of a distinctly nightmarish final year of teaching leading to premature retirement. I don't exaggerate when I say that Art - pictures and writing - and the opportunity to 'publish' online saved my sanity.
There has been more than one defining moment in my life:
a. my sudden switch to art, leaving home, and the final choice of teaching as a career
b. my marriage and horrific divorce after 15 years
c. my son's tragic suicide [aged 29] - my promise to him led to online publishing
d. my premature early retirement after gross mismanagement by my employers
I'm married for the second time and have a stepson and stepdaughter, in addition to my own two daughters - and 8 grandchildren [to date!]
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
This site uses cookies to deliver the best experience. Our own cookies make user accounts and other features possible. Third-party cookies are used to display relevant ads and to analyze how Renderosity is used. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our Terms of Service, including our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy.
Comments (23)
Mondwin
Fantastic effects and splendid paint..bravo!V:DDD.Hugsxx
eternalwytch1
Love the depth of colours!
romanceworks
Just love irises - one of my fav flowers. Such beautiful colors and comp here. CC
helanker
OHHH DEAR!!!!!!!! this is absolutely wonderful. I love it and I love Iris. Have some nice days.
Skydancer917
Wow, beautifully detailed irises! Have fun!
STEVIEUKWONDER
Beautiful work Mike. Have a good time away. Don't bother sehding me a post card! lol Enjoy! Steve :o)
NekhbetSun
Always been one of my fave flowers....guess it's the purple :o) Beautiful S ~ Hugs ~
kansas
Gorgeous! Enjoy your time away.
A_Sunbeam
Good idea; what with that freezing wind today we need to look ahead to Summer!
thecytron
Nicely done!
Valerie-Ducom
Oh yes, so beautiful work and very nice color mon ami !!! Excellent !!! Bisous et bonne journ :)
miashadows
HAVE A GREAT GET AWAY,BEAUTIFUL,LOVE THE LIGHT-EXELLENT WORK
bpclarke
Gorgeous image. Very well done. One of my favorite flowers of all time. Bunny
mamabobbijo
We had some irises next to the garbage cans. Every week they got run over and came back even more gorgeous after a day or so. The are so beautiful, and you have done them wonderfully! Thanks BJ
auntietk
Oh, well done! This is just beautiful.
RodolfoCiminelli
Fantastic and very creative realization of great beauty my friend....!!!!
titta
That wonderful light again! I love irrises, the blue glows in them. Beautiful work, Mike! Have a great break! :-)
idiot_sphinx
Lovely image !! I love these wonderful flowers :) !!~GORGEOUS~!!
amirapsp
WOW, love your attention to detail here!
TallPockets
Beautiful work, Mike! (Just got caught up on your last month's uploads. SUPERB!). My best to you and yours, T.P.
WhispersSoft
Mike this is super, and enjoy your time away....just know your missed when away and happy when ya come back hugs Dee
busi2ness
The Iris graphically very well presented here to a very fine level of detail. The colours and presentation also wonderful.
lucyjo
Love this!