ARTIST FEATURE - MIKE DESMOND

ARTIST | FEATURE

MIKE DESMOND

Mike Desmond is a contemporary painter and drawer based between Cheltenham and Chamonix, France. Mike's practice is one of exploration, discovery, impulse and improvisation. Play in colour, texture, medium and style. Ranging from abstract to figurative to landscape, he is interested in what it is to create and in developing a practice that allows him to follow his interests and intuition, making works that delve wildly into abstraction or tightly observe the human form.

For Mike, in his abstract works, it all begins with colour. He doesn't shy away from bright and lurid or even from opposing colours, making combinations work which have no business to. His colours build up in layers, creating new passages, revealing and obscuring in equal measures. Textures play off each other, adding light and weight to different areas, guiding the eye and suggesting at thought, meaning and narrative.

Mike's work often appears in series - trios or duos - ideas spilling from one board to the next. With gestural movement, colour and texture explode and vibrate over several canvases. With each board being small, these series brought and displayed beautifully together gain a new sense of weight and create new meanings when viewed together. These often small pieces are large in idea and small in stature, dynamic, intense and intimate.

With a focus on development and meaning in his practice, Mike explores across mediums and styles; playing with abstraction, practising with life drawing and developing new digital techniques. This is an artist who is not stuck in one place, but worth watching where he will push to next.

To catch Mike's work in person, check out his portfolio, follow his Instagram or visit the collective's Small Works exhibition down at Sixteen Gallery in April!

VIEW MIKE'S PORTFOLIO