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FEATURED PUBLICATIONS : Art Tour International 60 Contemporary Masters USA - 2019 Important Masters Volume 3, World Wide Books USA - 2018 Featured Artist, Art & Beyond, Magazine, USA October 2017 International Contemporary Masters Vol 11, World Wide Books 2017, USA Who's Who in Visual Art | 100 Top Fine Artists of Our Day . Vol Art Domain - Germany - 2017 Contemporary Art of Excellence Vol. 2 & 3 , Global Art Agency - 2016 & 2017 Biancoscuro Rivista D'arte - October 2015 Art Monaco Mag, featured article "Stop and Watch the Clouds", by David Mackenzie - Monaco 2015 AWARDS 2019 Art Tour International - Top 60 Masters of Contemporary Art. New York USA . 2019 Finalist Artavita Contest USA 2017 Runner up - Global Art Awards in assoc. Wall Street Journal and Armani - Dubai. 2016 Efferto Arte - International Prize Tiepolo. - Milan 2016 Palm Art Award - Art Domain - Germany 2015 Artiste Emergent - Art Monaco EXHIBITIONS 2019 ATIM - Top 60 Masters - New York 2019 New York Art Expo 2019 San Diego Art Expo 2018 Red-Dot/Spectrum Miami 2018 Shubashi Train Station - Tokyo 2018 Biennalle of Nations - Venice 2018 Rossocinabro Gallery - Rome 2017 Yellow House Gallery - Sydney 2018 Shubashi Train Station -Japan 2015 Gallery Steiner - Shanghai Art Expo 2015 19th Contemporary Art Fair Zurich 2015 Art Monaco 2012 Queen Street Gallery - Sydney 2010 Queen Street Gallery - Sydney 2009 Peter Crisp Gallery - Yass - Australia 2006 Queen Street Gallery - Sydney 2002 Tim Goodman Art - Sydney |
STOP & WATCH THE CLOUDS - BY DAVID MACKENZIE - Featured in Art Monaco Mag 2015 Since her early childhood in a remote village in Zimbabwe, Michelle Purves has always harboured a fascination with colour. Surrounded by landscapes made magical under the surreal light of the African sun, the young girl was moved by the beauty created by the marriage of light and the natural world. What other children may have missed due to other distractions such as television, Purves was able to appreciate, and her love of nature was able to blossom fully, bringing with it an ability to notice the slightest detail that could turn the ordinary into the inspirational – a passing patch of light on a leaf, the rustle of dirt against a languid worm, the majestic explosion of sunlight reflected off a silvery fish. It is no wonder that such early impressions, from a place of expansive nature where time moves slowly, should stick with an artist throughout their life. And so Michelle Purves’ paintings communicate this appreciation and understanding of light and nature. Her hues are endearing, emanating a warmth that demands a moment of contemplation. Their subject-matter is often implausibly simple and never formatically dominant, allowing the colours, textures and contrasts to take centre stage. However, that is not to say the subjects are irrelevant. Rather, they are carefully chosen, and Purves frequently strips the scenescape of everything that is not the subject she wishes to explore, allowing the subject’s nuances and often overlooked character to be revealed. In particular, she displays an appreciation of the emotional potential and physical importance of clouds. Commonly dismissed as unwanted obstructions to the aesthetic superiority of a bright sunny day, clouds, in Purves’ work, are championed as humble heroes: givers of gifts, above all the gift of all life, as the deliverers of rain and water. The clouds provide the sky with a canvas onto which light can project an endless array of designs and patterns, which we may then interpret as a reflection of human moods, from dark and moody to delicate and care-free. These paintings do not try to push an agenda or pass comment on socio-political problems, they are presentations of life and emotion, a reminder of our ever-changing moods – a habit we share with the sky itself. Through self-education, Michelle Purves has developed her own style of painting that has proved popular with private collectors as well as galleries, and she had her first exhibition in 2002. Michelle Purves has never lost touch with the rural, natural surroundings that provided her first impressions of the world. It is perhaps those impressions we have to thank for the deft mastery of light and contemplative respect for the natural world that give Purves’ paintings such deep evocative powers. |