Michael Kuegle

I first started painting in acrylics in my teenage years. I painted nature mostly, and I tried to learn from the Group of Seven, being Canadian. I switched to oils in my twenties, and continued to paint the nature that I was lucky to have all around me, but also started painting my own children, and was influenced by Matisse, Van Gogh, the Fauvists and Cezanne. In 2011 I was once again taking a course in oil painting, and while travelling that year I let myself be influenced more by Bonnard, De Kooning, Cy Twombly, Mondrian. I decided then to "draw a line" under my my artistic endeavours, and to concentrate almost exclusively on abstract and expressionism. This subject matter allowed me to "sound my own depths". I set out to focus on colour as an end in itself. Images may or may not emerge. The result is the paintings here in this collection of works. My painting "Lost Time" invites the viewer to lose their way in thought and time in a simple monochromatic mass. Sometimes images emerge in my paintings. In "Salmon Migration in Toronto", despite plain, man-made obstacles, the instinct and perseverance of nature prevails. "Reflecting on Jeff Coons", is a self-portrait in part (reflection on a shop window).

I have been painting all my life, advancing largely through self-study. I have studied oil painting informally at different art schools, including the Toronto School of Art and at the Atelier de la Villa Bastille, Paris. My formal education is in law, and I have been retired from the legal profession for some time.

Recent exhibitions: Ebb & Flow Juried Exhibition at the Lift Ground Gallery, Huntsville. I first exhibited a large painting when I was 18 at the art gallery of my home town, Burlington.