Michael D Rogers
Michael painted irregularly from 1988 onwards but since 2003 has painted almost daily. He is a member of Southern Cross Art Group and Bankstown Art Society.
He sometimes paints “en plein air” with his fellow artists, but mostly in his home studio, “Kurrajong”. His favoured medium is “oil on canvas” using Water Mixable Oils as well as acrylics, watercolour, collage and pen and wash. He paints landscapes, portraits, and abstracts. He has completed a growing number of commissions including two large external murals.
Early Days: Although as a young person he did not draw any more than the average person, he was very interested in photography. He took the majority of the family photographs and also looked for special effects in rural subjects and in structures such as bridges and buildings. These photos were in black and white and were developed and printed in the kitchen sink using a Kodak Home Developing Kit. His artistic leanings also showed in the fact that he made jewellery such as cuff links, tiepins, bracelets and necklaces by copper enamelling and by lapidary.
He started experimenting with drawing and sketching techniques while attending university for his Engineering and Science degrees in the 1960s when he should have been studying. Later on he made his own ‘home-made’ paper. He has written a children’s storybook (unpublished), a number of poems and intends to work on his autobiography. He sells his Christmas cards each year based on one of his oil paintings.
Later Activity: He judged the Sutherland Shire Festival of Arts & Crafts Exhibition 2009 (eleven categories). His work has been hung at Sutherland Art Gallery, Art Gallery-Kurnell, Timbertown Gallery, Wauchope and Imagine Gallery, Jannali. He exhibits in local art shows and has sold nearly 200 paintings to date. He is developing a loose, impressionist style to express his feelings about the Australian landscape and the Australian way of life. He loves to capture iconic, local features and everyday scenes such as those seen along the railway line, that others pass by without noticing. Historic rural subjects such as shearing sheds, grain silos, derelict farmhouses and harvesting time are a recent interest along with street scenes and café scenes.
He was one of the inaugural cooperative of ten artists who set up Art Gallery-Kurnell in 2008.
Ambition: His dream is to gain wider recognition as a Sydney artist. Although he is still battling to discover his own personal style and favourite subject matter he is currently experimenting with the genre of contemporary figurative painting in oils and acrylics. In this regard his favourite artist is Nicholas Harding.
He is currently experimenting with the watercolour medium under the tutelage of Norma C. Jones and portraiture with Petros Havagimian.
He continues to sell regularly and is hung in a growing number of homes both here and overseas.
He married his wife Lorraine in 1968 – she is his best critic and greatest supporter. They have three grown up children and four grandchildren. He hopes at least one of them will turn out to be artistic and nurtures any sign with enthusiasm.
AWARDS
Commended 2013 BAS Water Theme Art
Exhibition
for ‘Dunbogan Beach’
Finalist “Art of Sydney” Awards 2013.
Awarded ‘Finalist’ for ‘Abstract No 3’,
Abstract acrylics section.
Highly Commended “Art by the Sea” Festival
(Cronulla South
Public School)
2012 for “Rainy Day
in the City”.
Highly Commended (ie 2nd
Place)
Bankstown Paceway Inaugural Equine
Art Exhibition
2012 for “Ready for
the Race, (Firing Along)”.
President’s Award Bankstown Paceway Inaugural Equine Art
Exhibition
2012 for “Ready for the
Race, (Firing Along)”.
3rd place Sutherland
Shire Arts Society (SSASI) Annual Art Exhibition
2011 for Portrait of “Jiawei Shen”.
1st place SSASI
Annual Art Exhibition
2010 for
Portraits – “Dave Manning, Artist”.
2nd place Waterbrook,
Miranda Annual Art Exhibition
2010 -
“Fire and Water”.
1st place Sutherland
Shire Festival of Arts & Crafts
2007
Exhibition for Acrylics.
TUITION:
2013: ?
2012: Art–in-Action 2-day workshop at Merroo, Kurrajong under Herman Pekel.
2010: National Art School Summer School - Master Painting with Roger Crawford
2009: Art–in-Action Paul McCarthy’s 3-day workshop concentrating on Paul’s special style.
A number of 1-day workshops under well-known local artists like Cathy Harry, Joe Bezzina etc.
2006: Art–in-Action 3-day workshop on the impressionist method under John Corby.
2005: Art–in-Action 3-day workshop under John Perkins and Paul McCarthy.
2004: Workshops by Graham Cox and Julie Goldspink at Laurieton, NSW.
2001: Cartooning course by correspondence. His sense of humour allows him to notice quirky little events and he has had several cartoons published in newspapers.
1988/9: His main training was at Gymea TAFE College, Sydney, where he completed a two-year part-time Certificate in Painting course.
1977: His very first “brush with oils” occurred when he attended painting classes at Newcastle TAFE College.
Last revised: 5 May 2013
