Michael Kirkbride NEAC

Statement

Over recent years Michael’s work has focussed on people, gesture, objects and styling. The introductions of surrealistic elements have added an absurdist twist to works which oscillate between observation, recollection, and imagination. An interface between the banal with the incongruous is a recurring pictorial device, where one scenario is often hybridized with another.

Above all his works are supposition; they seek to make visible narratives that exist in the mind's eye. The idiosyncrasy of invention is the primary tool, with the human figure as the dominant structural motif.

Methodology

Michael’s paintings are essentially conjured. Their creation relies partly on his visual memory, and partly on events experienced or imagined. Each painting begins with the accrual of many animated thoughts and vignettes in a sketchbook. These eventually amalgamate into a cohesive pictorial design, essentially becoming maps for the final work.

His compositions are honed and reworked over several weeks and months, which continues into the painting process, as the work often calls itself into question. Keenly aware of the limits of imagination, he will refer to the photograph, the internet, and magazines for inspiration, underpinning this with observational drawing. The act of drawing is central to his creative process; he will often draw impulsively on whatever comes to hand and later collate these fragments into a notebook. The books become an archive of the painting's evolution. Oil paint and egg tempera are his current preferred media.

Bio

1959 Born in County Durham

1997-1980 BA Hons Fine Art, Sunderland Polytechnic

1992-1995 Post Graduate Diploma in Painting, Royal Academy Schools London

1996-2011 Senior Lecturer: Visual Studies, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts

2004 Elected member of New English Art Club

2014 Appointed curator of New English Art Club Drawing School