His glamorous scenes, set in bars, clubs, cafés, and dance studios, are marked by a hazy realism reminiscent of French impressionist and post-impressionist works by artists such as Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Carson, who was formally trained in design, brings elements of fashion and architecture into his work, but his foremost commitment is to the art of painting. “I love the ways that a single brushstroke can create such subtleties in facial expression,” he has remarked. “I spend most of my time on the face and hands. They tell the story.”
Influenced by the paintings of Toulouise Loutrec, John Singer Sargent, Norman Rockwell, Malcolm Liepke, and Milt Kobayashi, Michael Carson is primarily a figurative artist who likes to tell a story.
His volition is to emphasize relationships of color and light and allow the texture of his brush stroke to move the viewer’s eye through the art. “I like the fact that the face can be such a subtle subject and one brush stroke can be the difference in the feel of the entire piece. That gives me the ability to work in one subject matter and still find that I learn something new in every painting. I love to incorporate my love of design, fashion and architecture into my work. My nondescript surroundings help me to create a mood or a story that I am trying to relay through my painting. Seeing how the work evolves, the subtle and drastic differences, and looking forward to the future is what keeps me painting. I view a painting as a success when I take from it something new that follows me into my next work. It’s just learning to become a better painter.”
Carson’s women: “Unconsciously, I end up painting a very similar looking character, as you can see, in many of my paintings. It may be my ideal figure. I don’t know.”
As for the impeccably stylish clothes in which his subjects are outfitted, they are largely his own creations. “I love fashion,” Carson says. “I wish I could design clothes, but never really saw that as a possibility for whatever reason. Even though I am using references, I always end up changing the outfit to suit me and my needs for the painting. So I guess I do design clothing in a manner.”
You’ll notice repeated pattern:baroque wallpaper motifs, polka dots, flowers. “The interesting thing to me isn’t necessarily the pattern itself,” he says, “but how it’s applied over the painting, and how the flat pattern can float over a dress that has folds and creases and volume. I just love the push and pull effect that has on the work. It becomes very graphic and designed. And painterly. And it’s this combination that keeps me excited to continue every day in the studio.”
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