Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine July 2017 | Page 436

Painting has always been a expression of
emotion for Michelle and it is through colour that
she finds truest expression.
Michelle rarely seek out subjects; rather she allow
ideas to announce themselves. This approach
finds her drawn to diverse subjects, landscapes,
portraits, floral and abstract. These subjects
gives her work outline, but ultimately she always
seeks to capture that first emotional response
to particular colour or combinations of tones.
Design then takes over. Forms are abstracted.
Shapes altered, colours heightened, until she
is satisfied that each part of the compositon
works in harmony to recreate that initial
sensation. Space is as important as well as detail.
Tones must be balanced, where the pieces are
entirely abstract, the process is similar for her
representational work, balancing everything on
the canvas to eventually achieve the desired final
colour effect.
Michelle has worked with the renowned design
company, Osborne & Little, as their colourist
for fabrics and wallpapers. This was long before
computers came on the scene so everything
was hand painted. After two years she left
the company to concentrate on her Fine Art,
travelling to paint and to exhibit her paintings in
UK galleries. Eventually in the 1990’s she opened
a gallery called ‘Celf’ (the welsh word for art ) in
Mumbles, Wales, with her wonderful friend and
fellow artist Caroline Rees. After five years, she
then moved to Bath City in England and opened
another gallery called “Sitting Colour” where
both her design work and paintings sat side
by side. Michelle has now moved to Vancouver
Island, in Canada, to join her Canadian/Nevisian
husband, where where she hopes to set up a
gallery soon.