michael j strang
forty years of painting

Michael J Strang - Introduction by Michael Jay

This exhibition of work by Michael Strang spans a period of 40 years from a painting of his mother dated 1968, before he went to art school, to a painting completed as I write this introduction in mid April 2009.

In a remarkable career that has produced literally thousands of oil paintings and drawings, Michael has embraced countless subjects within the spectrum of landscapes - natural and man-made, seascapes, floral arrangements, flowering fields and hedgerows, still-life and portraits.

At the latest count, his work has been shown in over 90 public and private galleries and museums, a total that includes the Tate St Ives, the Royal Academy, galleries in London’s Bond Street, Cork Street and Albermarle Street and, famously, The Gallery at Virginia Water.

As well as in private collections all over the world, Michael Strang paintings may be found in notable public collections, including Penlee House, Penzance; Falmouth Art Gallery; Cornwall County Council; St Martin’s in the Fields, London; and Surrey University. And he has donated many works to help raise funds for a range of charities and restoration funds.

Michael is a passionate and energetic painter for whom no day is complete without the application of paint to canvas or panel. He shares his time between West Cornwall, Surrey and Wales.

Michael J Strang,
photographed by Barry Sinton

Artist’s Comment

Before commencing Art School in 1968, I read that Turner had wanted to bequeath a large amount of work painted at different points in his life, to the nation, on condition that they were shown together. I can remember thinking that surely the later pictures would be better images and that the earlier ones should be more or less banished in favour of the more recent.

Of course, now with over 40 years of painting behind me, I have revisited that view and realise the excitement of being able to see the “oeuvre” of an artist as a totality, each work though perhaps years apart, in dialogue with the others - jostling, correcting, arguing, debating, counterbalancing its neighbours. Extrapolating from this, the work then continues its dialogue with the paintings created during further years by earlier artists that have excited and inspired the present collection, thus setting in motion a train of thinking that echoes Elliot’s words in his ‘Tradition and the industrial talent’ - “...no poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is his appreciation of his relation to dead poets and artists”.

Thus the paintings in this exhibition form in part, the tree of my artistic journey though its roots dig and burrow into the wealth of our culture’s history, gaining inspiration and sustenance from the painters, poets, writers and composers who have gone before and whose creative achievements stand as an eternal testimony to the indomitable spirit of mankind. 

e-mail gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk or call 01736 788911 or 07971 206938 without delay to purchase the painting of your choice.
 
All paintings are framed. Full refund of purchase price if not entirely satisfied (so long as we are notified within three days of collection/delivery. Shipping to any UK mainland address costs from £20.

Click on an image to enlarge

Engine House, Botallack ‘05 25 x 30cm oil on panel £1,095	Porthmeor St Ives ‘95 * A 10 x 15cm oil on panel £625	Porthmeor St Ives ‘95 * B 10 x 15cm oil on panel £650 SOLD
Porthmeor St Ives ‘95 * C 10 x 15cm oil on panel £495	Porthmeor St Ives ‘95 * D 10 x 15cm oil on panel £495	Penzance Harbour ‘98 20 x 25cm oil on panel £850
Potato field, Castalack 2005 25 x 30cm oil on panel £1,095 SOLD	Towards St Michael’s Mount c.’96 20 x 30cm oil on panel £850	Cot Valley c.’95 30 x 40cm oil on panel £2,100
Bosigran spring ‘91 30 x 40cm oil on panel £2,100	Double rainbow, Cot Valley c.’94 30 x 40cm oil on panel £2,100	The sea from Longrock Beach ‘98 40 x 40cm oil on panel £2,500
Daffodils in the garden c.’98 33 x 40cm oil on panel £2,250	Vase of flowers c.’07 30 x 40cm oil on panel £2,100	Elsie’s tulips ‘08 40 x 30cm oil on panel £2,100
Sunflower, still life c.’97 40 x 50cm oil on panel £2,750	Garden bonfire, Gulval c.’99 40 x 50cm oil on panel £2,750	St Ives Harbour 1991 40 x 50cm oil on panel £2,750
Poppies and other summer flowers ‘86 50 x 40cm oil on panel £2,750	Flowering apple trees, Meg’s Valley, Gulval ‘08 60 x 45cm oil on panel £3,150	Meg and Jack 1995 60 x 50cm oil on panel £3,250 SOLD
Mount’s Bay from Trevaylor c.04 30 x 60cm oil on panel £2,650 SOLD	St Hilary Church, near Goldsithney ‘93 70 x 90cm oil on panel £5,250	Porthchapel sunset ‘92 60 x 90cm oil on panel £4,250
Porthchapel sunset c.‘93 60 x 122cm oil on panel £4,250	Spring bouquet c.’04 60 x 75cm oil on canvas £3,950	“A prayer shimmering in light” Longships lighthouse from Porthnanven 2009 122 x 183cm oil on canvas £14,950
Porthnanven sunset with self portrait c.’04-’09 94 x 122cm oil on canvas £8.950	The Poppy field, 2009 122 x 183cm oil on canvas £14,950	Janet 1985 28 x 17cm oil on panel n.f.s.
The artist's mother c.'73 60 x 44cm oil on panel n.f.s.	The artist's mother c.'78 31 x 24cm drawing n.f.s.	The Artist's mother '68 60 x 32cm oil on panel n.f.s

*Originally in the Tate Gallery St Ives “Century of images, Porthmeor Beach” exhibition April - October 1995 along with over 50 of Michael’s other Porthmeor paintings.

More paintings by Michael J Strang

2nd - 27th May 2009

The Great Atlantic Arwenack Street Gallery, Falmouth
48 Arwenack Street, Falmouth TR11 3JH
Tel 01326 318452

also 12th June 2009
The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just
5 Bank Square, St Just TR19 7HH
Tel 01736 788911