Michael Sole

In 2009 and 2010 he was awarded “Young Artist of the Year” by the Royal Society of Marine Artists for his work exhibited in a group show in the Mall Galleries, London. Last year he was in the running for the Threadneedle prize and the Evolver Prize 2012. He was also awarded the ‘Arts Charitable Trust Award’ in the Royal Society of Marine Artists annual exhibition in London. All three exhibitions in London were real successes, selling out completely by the end of each show and winning the trust of some international collectors.

Interested in nature and the re-evaluation of its painterly tradition, Sole’s work explores painting as a process using the great outdoors as a subject matter. To gain inspiration he places himself into the environment he paints, enabling him to bring thoughts, ideas, and the physical presence of the landscape back into the studio and onto his canvases. Often he spends months at a time observing his choice of subject matter, completely immersing himself in the task.

“The sea and the sky are fascinating to me, especially in extreme circumstances, storms etc. In painting I feel very strongly that energy must be met with energy. By this I mean big seas and powerful subject matter benefits from energetic, physical and confident painting which usually includes allowing the paint to have its own way, without using a brush. Dripping, pouring, throwing, lifting, shaking etc all add to these involuntary effects. Through these processes and techniques I hope to capture the power and atmosphere of the environment that I have placed myself into.”

Sole says he is striving to achieve a state of “Involuntaryism” a concept of the built up knowledge in the artists hand is permitted to come through in an instinctive approach to the application of the materials in this case they include oils, bitumen, PVA and emulsion. “‘Involuntarylism’ is the act of allowing the paint and gravity to create the painting itself. Involuntarylism is subject to the artist ‘puppeteering’ the paint, using built up knowledge and past experience, to create the final painting. The artist’s involvement is purely to manipulate the paint and canvas so as to exaggerate as strongly as possible the resulting organic textures and marks. The whole idea of involuntarylism is allowing the paints characteristics to produce the marks, creating organic patterns, atmosphere and substantiation, allowing the painting to have a life of its own. However, this is not enough.

Through the study of impressionism and the art of Van Gogh “The artist” has recently become as important to me as the paint itself. To show the presence of the artist and to merge one with the other created the inspiration for this body of work.”