Michael Stenson

I'm a watercolorist mostly and dabble in pastels, oil pastels, a wee bit of digital, and acrylics in Impressionist/neo/post as well as Sumi styles. My art studies were primarily Sumi-style until I took up watercolors around 2018. I grew up in the West and now reside in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
I started a colt, Sage, and we cared for each other for 30 years, living mostly on ranches with Sara, a couple other horses, dogs, cats, a sparrow, a peacock, wild turkeys, and sundry wild critters.
I think painting rules/expectations (especially the pious kind) are like religions; you can have them if you need them-I don’t.
Most watercolor paintings are on 150 lb., acid free, archival quality 100% cotton paper, custom stretched and waxed so ready to hang, no glass/frame needed.

My first trip to the art museums in Amsterdam, Paris, and London set my heart on the path of impressionism. Already practiced in Sumi brushwork, I became fascinated by the way atmosphere, composition, brush and palette knife, and vision work in this style.

I've enjoyed several virtual and in-person art classes over the last 40 years. Now, I hang out with some exceptional artists (Santa Fe is the nation's 3rd largest art market), and paint almost every day,

I had some art classes in college, pursued a degree in General Semantics, and worked for many years marketing, designing, and leading development teams for large-scale computer systems (I had a lot of mouths to feed).