Gary Michael

A native Oregonian, Born in 1934 in Portland, Michael began drawing and painting as a boy. After graduating, Gary Michael studied art and architecture at the University of Oregon and Yale University where he received a Masters degree in Architecture. A board member of the Arts Action Alliance of Clackamas County, he is involved in promoting arts and culture in his community.

Michael’s exhibit in the Governor’s Office represented the first showing of a recently completed suite of five panoramic Oregon landscape drawings. The works are pastel on wood, each measuring 24” x 48”, and capture the artist’s dynamic talent for color and light. Says Michael, “I try to communicate to the viewer of my work the beauty and sense of special places caught in light in a unique moment in time.”

Using watercolors, colored pencils, acrylics, or- more usually, these days-pastels or oils, Michael depicts a farm near Sheridan, or mountains, in Washington, or Oregon. Most of Michael’s subjects are places in Oregon.

As a design architect, Michael says, he did a lot of drawing. “But it wasn’t until the early 80’s,” he says, “that I started seriously painting, for fun, and for my own pleasure. Then I’d sell one, not because I wanted to, but people wanted them.”

Through the years, he has racked up numerous awards and a growing reputation as a talented professional in the world of fine art.