Mike Henshaw's Paintings

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MIKE'S PAINTINGS


Emerging Thing	Oak in Red
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.”

And he continues to follow his own path…

www.mockingbirdpottery.com

Copyright Mike Henshaw 2008