Press and Editorial
Michael Weston - Brittany
May 2007Annandale Galleries
» View Michael Weston - Brittany exhibition
MICHAEL WESTON lives in a converted café in the shadow of the lighthouse marking the westernmost point of land in France. This area of Brittany is defined by the sea, before which we are all nurtured spiritually but must feel insignificant. It is a magical place of pastel colours, whitewashed houses, pastel colours, the smell of bracing sea air punctuated by the cries of seagulls and the sound of the wind. He is informed by his surroundings but paints what he feels rather what he sees. In the case of the current Brittany paintings he shares with us the smells, the views, the air and his sense of being fully present through the work. The paintings display at once a delicate and sure touch, are atmospheric, moody and mysterious and amply reward concentrated viewing. It is a combination of paint and poetry.
MICHAEL WESTON is the quintessential painter. I have personally collected his work for over twenty-five years and his paintings have always enjoyed pride of place in my home. He has always lived from his work including a period roughly between 1968 and 1983 where he never once participated in a solo commercial exhibition. His goal has never been to achieve notoriety or fame but to simply paint good pictures. He is not averse to conventional success and has had his fair share of it but his goal is simply to live through his calling as a painter. His art is not concerned with career; it is life that interests Michael.
The CENTREPIECES of the current exhibition are two major blocks of roughly double A4 sized sheets of paper totalling over one hundred pieces. The process derives from the time honoured ?sketchbook?. Weston?s works however are not sketchbook ?diaries? as is often the case but rather finished paintings using the sketchbook as support. It is up to the viewer to use their own creative juices, in the experience of looking, to find aesthetically satisfying or emotionally stimulating relations among the works to create sets that say something personal. You are invited to ?take some pages? out of the life of the artist and arrange them according to your own inspiration. If your choices give you a fraction of the pleasure this art has afforded me over the years you will have done very well indeed.
? Bill Gregory, May 2007
MICHAEL WESTON was born in Jerusalem in 1943 and lives and works in Paris and Brittany. His father is the painter Reginald Weston. ANNANDALE GALLERIES are proud and delighted to present our FOURTH SOLO exhibition of his work. This is his sixth show in Australia since 1987. His work is in numerous private collections in the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia.
» View Michael Weston - Brittany exhibition
MICHAEL WESTON lives in a converted café in the shadow of the lighthouse marking the westernmost point of land in France. This area of Brittany is defined by the sea, before which we are all nurtured spiritually but must feel insignificant. It is a magical place of pastel colours, whitewashed houses, pastel colours, the smell of bracing sea air punctuated by the cries of seagulls and the sound of the wind. He is informed by his surroundings but paints what he feels rather what he sees. In the case of the current Brittany paintings he shares with us the smells, the views, the air and his sense of being fully present through the work. The paintings display at once a delicate and sure touch, are atmospheric, moody and mysterious and amply reward concentrated viewing. It is a combination of paint and poetry.
MICHAEL WESTON is the quintessential painter. I have personally collected his work for over twenty-five years and his paintings have always enjoyed pride of place in my home. He has always lived from his work including a period roughly between 1968 and 1983 where he never once participated in a solo commercial exhibition. His goal has never been to achieve notoriety or fame but to simply paint good pictures. He is not averse to conventional success and has had his fair share of it but his goal is simply to live through his calling as a painter. His art is not concerned with career; it is life that interests Michael.
The CENTREPIECES of the current exhibition are two major blocks of roughly double A4 sized sheets of paper totalling over one hundred pieces. The process derives from the time honoured ?sketchbook?. Weston?s works however are not sketchbook ?diaries? as is often the case but rather finished paintings using the sketchbook as support. It is up to the viewer to use their own creative juices, in the experience of looking, to find aesthetically satisfying or emotionally stimulating relations among the works to create sets that say something personal. You are invited to ?take some pages? out of the life of the artist and arrange them according to your own inspiration. If your choices give you a fraction of the pleasure this art has afforded me over the years you will have done very well indeed.
? Bill Gregory, May 2007
MICHAEL WESTON was born in Jerusalem in 1943 and lives and works in Paris and Brittany. His father is the painter Reginald Weston. ANNANDALE GALLERIES are proud and delighted to present our FOURTH SOLO exhibition of his work. This is his sixth show in Australia since 1987. His work is in numerous private collections in the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia.