Artist Talk :: Michael Craik :: EBB & FLOW

About

Arriving outside Michael Craik’s coastal studio in Fife, the senses are engulfed by an expanse of sky and the endlessly shifting colours of the sea as they vanish into the distant horizon of the Forth Estuary. The uninterrupted ebb and flow of these waters form a subconscious backdrop to Craik’s daily studio routine, a metronome to his unhurried and deliberate painting process. 

Craik’s process is one of adding and subtracting, of reduction and distillation. Each work is slowly and meticulously crafted over weeks and months by repeatedly brushing, spreading and pouring layers of translucent acrylic paint. The painting goes on a journey. One moment it exists as a block of vivid, opaque, monochromatic colour, only to be tempered and transformed later by subsequent veils of paint. At regular intervals the painted surface is sanded flat, removing all brush marks to leave a pebble smooth surface and uninterrupted fields of colour, which dissolve and melt across the surface, fading to the edges where fine bands of saturated colour have been exposed.

Craik was born in Edinburgh in 1972 and has worked as an artist in Scotland for over 20 years. He studied Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before completing an MA in European Fine Art in Barcelona. A recipient of several awards, Craik’s work has been widely exhibited internationally and is represented by galleries in Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and the USA. 

The event is free however booking is essential.

Click here to book

The gallery will be open until 5pm to view the exhibition and to chat with the artist over a glass of fizz. Guests are invited to propose a question for the talk when booking.

The talk will be standing but if anyone would prefer a seat, please do let us know in advance.