Happy Tuesday!
Every time I post oil paintings such as these, I wonder why on earth my art room isn’t set up and why my oils are still in a box!  We moved to Charleston over a month ago!  It. Is. Time!!!

Seriously, aren’t these paintings incredible?  The thing that really attracted me to them is the stark contrast.  There are delightfully hazy, dreamy, faded spaces, and then there are such deep, dramatic pops of color and depth.  Oh boy, Michael Carson really knows what he is doing and how to create high impact moments on canvas!

Michael paints mostly people (he is, after all, a dye hard people watcher), and focuses on the subtleties in his subject’s expression, variations in brush strokes, and color shades.  He started his artistic career as a graphic designer (can you tell?) and just started painting a few years ago!  Crazy!  Perhaps it is the “learn and as you go”  attitude that makes Michael’s paintings so full of character and life.   He is still in the early stages of being in love with paint.  I have a theory that no artist should ever lose that first love.  It is what inspires us to do better, to try crazy new things, and to go outside of our comfort zone.

So with that, go admire more of Michael Carson‘s work, and then start a new and daring painting of your own!