Mike Henshaw began painting
with oil and canvas in 2001. He was given his introduction
to Plein Air painting by noted Florida oil painter Julie Bowland.
“Julie let me tag along on her painting trips
to the beaches, marshes and tidal inlets below Tallahassee.
She taught me how to prepare the canvas, mix and apply colors—and
most importantly, how to concentrate while being totally covered
with black flies and mosquitoes!”
In that period, Mike was influenced by folk paintings he had
seen around the world--- and by the Expressionist movement
of the early 20th century.
Beyond Maxwell's Farm
Henny Penny Races Against the Night
“In the beginning,
I was heavily influenced by Soutine, Van Gogh and early Matisse and
Cezanne. I was mesmerized by the imaginative and powerful way these
artists interpreted the subject in front of them. Then one day I was
introduced to the artists of the western European COBRA movement and
began to ask questions.”
“In 2002, I took an
abstract painting course with Pinkney Herbert at Penland Craft School
in North Carolina. This time was pivotal in that a whole world of
imagination opened up for me. I found that I could pull the shapes
and colors I wanted out of my own head. So rather than painting an
oak tree as I watched it, I could paint my memory of an oak tree from
childhood, plus a simple decoration from a piece of Japanese folk
pottery that I loved, plus the colors that filtered through my screen
door on a warm winter evening— all on the same canvas!”
“Now most of my painting comes out of my mind. The shape
of an old Khmer flower vase, a tree out in the backyard, fanciful
dogs and birds—they’re all in there waiting to come out
and join the world.”
