Mike Staniford - Evening Treeline, 2022 - Acrylic on paper - 96x75cm - Tasmanian oak frame with white matte

This artwork is from Mike's 2022 exhibition at Mr Minty's, titled Radiance.

Radiance explores the relationship between light, landscape and artist. An avid traveller, Mike searches for moments of magic along Australia’s coastlines and bush lands, following the light on his quest for inspiration. He is moved by the ephemeral, spatial and spectral effects of light, particularly the way it transforms the landscape through changes in time, weather and season. When seen in a fresh light, the benign becomes charged and the most familiar of vistas becomes new.

Mike paints intuitively with thorough consideration of composition, palette and surface. He creates depth through layering and transparency. Areas of the underpainting often show through, revealing glimpses of the painting’s history. His structural brushwork edges towards abstraction as he edits out superfluous detail and reduces the landscape to its most basic shapes. By painting only what is necessary he leaves room for personal interpretation. It is in this fertile space that the painting takes on a new life before the viewer.

Artwork location: Sydney