Michael Porter

About

These recent paintings look back to some of the work produced almost twenty years ago and yet they bring together the ideas of intimacy and close observation that have been a hallmark of the intervening years.

The works evolve slowly, often taking a year or more to complete Porter commented recently,

The paintings mature like nature itself, the seeds of an idea are set, take root and allowed to grow, are pruned and reshaped and blossom and hopefully bear fruit

Sometimes the work appears extravagant and sometimes restrained, but always displaying a serious and single-minded philosophy permitting the viewer to be both part of the landscape and observer at the same time.

Although the paintings in this current exhibition do not have the scale of previous works, because of their physicality they appear much larger than they actually are. The tension between surface quality and the intimacy of the delicately painted objects within these surfaces gives off a strange otherworldliness, yet this is combined with a scene that the observer can easily relate.

Porter's premise that the artist tells people what they already know, but puts it in a different way, certainly is evident in this unique body of work. The paintings demonstrate an overpowering love of being out there in the landscape and our ability to stand, stare and appreciate the world around us.