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me myself and Eye
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Welcome friends, Please enjoy THE SLIDE SHOW ON THE NEXT PAGE. These paintings, carvings and works were done mostly at the cabin, some in my favourite town Port Alberni, and some on the beaches and roads in between. A few are from the Cariboo, or elsewhere on the Island. The boats and kayaks were built on the beach.
I was born in Brighton England and drew pictures constantly. My family encouraged me and fortunately i was very good at it in school, which helped get me through to grade nine. Leaving school early in Canada, and in search of adventure, i became an infantry man and paratrooper in the Canadian Army. Painting was not on the menu for that particular trade. After eight years I retired and became a biker for a year or two in order to mellow out and enjoy civie street in its full glory.
Once the thrill of motorcycle racing wore thin I began serious inquiries into consciousness and studieds art history and the elements of design at University of Victoria. I graduated in Poli Sci, however with ambitions to study Law. Yet, through good fortune and a simple twist of fate, I ended up a boatbuilder, artist and a homesteader with a group of expatriate Americans on the shores of Catface Mountain.
Here with the encouragement and Inspiration from fellow artists: a writer, a carver, a painter, a genius builder, and talented weavers, gardeners, a wonderfully creative engineer and wonderfull first nations friends, I painted in earnest and created from wood stone tin and copper: Often with nothing more than coffee, porridge, and the occasional smoke to keep one going. Butter, honey, sugar, milk, bread: they were the luxuries of life! One had to sell a painting in Tofino somehow...just to survive. I was a wet and bedraggled site in the Common Loaf Bakery on Friday mornings, paintings in hand for low cost distribution to understanding and laughing friends.
On the spot emotional interpretations of nature and imagination resulted in a fast spontaneous approach. Yet studied and careful work, fine detail and realistic renditions were also very necessary to accomplish the freedom I yearned for. A continual evolution of line and form in abstract work meant I had no idea of the end product, and sometimes knowing when to stop was and is everything!
Direct tube to canvas no thinking allowed renditions are my passion....Obviously Vincent Van Gough, The Group of Seven, Wiliam Holgate, Emily Carr, and then DeKooning, Picaso, and fellow west coaster Godfry Stevens, figured prominently in my studies. Reknown First Nations Carvers such as David Frank inspired me in an appreciation of the lines and form for the dugout canoe. Work in the Hazeltons building a paddle wheeler restaurant for a few years, allowed me to work, paint, fish, and appreciate with "the People of the Mist.
I inherited "the west coast line" however which I use in abstract work, from the beach, the waves, the sky, and the trees of Catface mountain: It is the home of the last thunderbird, according to my dear friends and benefactors the Ahousat people.
The line, as I put it, is the sweep of the hand, the movement of the arm the very eye, which produces a fair and strong curve, circle, or path with the pencil or brush or knife first time round...It defines and begins many pieces especially the abstract linear expressions.
You my Friends and Peoples of the West Coast are a beautiful gift. A life spent here is well spent indeed. It can be cold and rough and wet, yet the beauty and the generosity, the kindness and the understanding are everything.
I thank you each sincerely mike henry wright
I was born in Brighton England and drew pictures constantly. My family encouraged me and fortunately i was very good at it in school, which helped get me through to grade nine. Leaving school early in Canada, and in search of adventure, i became an infantry man and paratrooper in the Canadian Army. Painting was not on the menu for that particular trade. After eight years I retired and became a biker for a year or two in order to mellow out and enjoy civie street in its full glory.
Once the thrill of motorcycle racing wore thin I began serious inquiries into consciousness and studieds art history and the elements of design at University of Victoria. I graduated in Poli Sci, however with ambitions to study Law. Yet, through good fortune and a simple twist of fate, I ended up a boatbuilder, artist and a homesteader with a group of expatriate Americans on the shores of Catface Mountain.
Here with the encouragement and Inspiration from fellow artists: a writer, a carver, a painter, a genius builder, and talented weavers, gardeners, a wonderfully creative engineer and wonderfull first nations friends, I painted in earnest and created from wood stone tin and copper: Often with nothing more than coffee, porridge, and the occasional smoke to keep one going. Butter, honey, sugar, milk, bread: they were the luxuries of life! One had to sell a painting in Tofino somehow...just to survive. I was a wet and bedraggled site in the Common Loaf Bakery on Friday mornings, paintings in hand for low cost distribution to understanding and laughing friends.
On the spot emotional interpretations of nature and imagination resulted in a fast spontaneous approach. Yet studied and careful work, fine detail and realistic renditions were also very necessary to accomplish the freedom I yearned for. A continual evolution of line and form in abstract work meant I had no idea of the end product, and sometimes knowing when to stop was and is everything!
Direct tube to canvas no thinking allowed renditions are my passion....Obviously Vincent Van Gough, The Group of Seven, Wiliam Holgate, Emily Carr, and then DeKooning, Picaso, and fellow west coaster Godfry Stevens, figured prominently in my studies. Reknown First Nations Carvers such as David Frank inspired me in an appreciation of the lines and form for the dugout canoe. Work in the Hazeltons building a paddle wheeler restaurant for a few years, allowed me to work, paint, fish, and appreciate with "the People of the Mist.
I inherited "the west coast line" however which I use in abstract work, from the beach, the waves, the sky, and the trees of Catface mountain: It is the home of the last thunderbird, according to my dear friends and benefactors the Ahousat people.
The line, as I put it, is the sweep of the hand, the movement of the arm the very eye, which produces a fair and strong curve, circle, or path with the pencil or brush or knife first time round...It defines and begins many pieces especially the abstract linear expressions.
You my Friends and Peoples of the West Coast are a beautiful gift. A life spent here is well spent indeed. It can be cold and rough and wet, yet the beauty and the generosity, the kindness and the understanding are everything.
I thank you each sincerely mike henry wright
Louise MacIntosh 1990 |
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