
Michael Autumn
+44 7770590511
https://michaelautumn.wordpress.com
https://www.youtube.com/@Michael.Autumn
https://www.fineart.co.uk%2Fdirectory%2Fmichael-autumn_101904.aspx
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MichaelAutumnArt
I’m a self-taught artist. I learn best by doing things (as opposed to just reading about them), trying things out, research, patience. I loved school and really enjoyed most of the subjects, but I especially liked art (did a lot in my own time at home) and technical drawing. However, my art teacher advised me not to go to art school! She said I could teach myself all the art I wanted, and that I should study an academic subject – which I did (philosophy, psychology, and economics). With hindsight, I think she was wise enough to realise that art is a very precarious way to make a living, and, realising I had academic potential, suggested I get an academic university education with better career prospects – and pursue art at my own pace.
Life can lead you in odd directions – like floating in a barrel down a river or stream – and you don’t necessarily end up where you want to go. Sometimes you just have to get out of the drifting barrel, use your compass, and head off in the direction you really want to go. At, and after, university, I accidentally fell into computing, liked it, and found I had an aptitude for it – and so I drifted down that river for many very successful years – in many industries and several countries. But while it was very much appreciated by others – who paid me very well indeed for my work as a programmer, designer, technical architect/consultant – it was meaningless to me…
Despite being a bit of a polymath, I still got/get most pleasure out of creating things and, hopefully, giving others pleasure. I’ve always created things (painting, crafts, photography, videos, poetry) – it’s my nature – but sometimes you have to devote yourself entirely to something in order to really excel in it and achieve ambitious things. So in 2019 I decided to give up a very well paid career in IT to devote myself entirely to art.
Once I went to a Royal College of Art open day, with a view to applying for a full-time post graduate course in art, but I got quite a rude awakening/realisation. It was very apparent that it was not for me: it was clear they wanted mouldable minds (which I am not!), were mostly interested in “newness” or “originality” – almost to the exclusion of quality and aesthetics. Well, I am all about quality and aesthetics – as was the vast majority of art up until around about the 20th century – and I make absolutely no apology for that.
My love for Nature informs most of my art. I am also very interested in philosophy and psychology – and this comes through in my art also. I don’t want to be one of those art college graduates whose art is only shown in galleries (because normal people don’t want it in their homes), and is passed by in seconds with people whispering under their breath “WTF is that?!”… I want to make art that at the very least is visually appealing, uplifting, and thought-provoking…
There’s always more than meets the eye in my artwork. I can’t, and don’t want to, recreate what someone has already done – or in a style or medium that has already been done. So you won’t find me doing “normal”: normal landscapes, normal portraits, normal still lifes – or normal whatever. I have to justify to myself why I am doing a piece of art – and why it is new or worthy…
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