Charlotte, one of our EAC Interns, writes about her first day at the Art Center and artwork by Michael Ireland:
Michael Ireland is a male artist that grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago. While in his studies of art, his passion for watercolor painting took off. Some of his pieces have an irregularity of being doubled in size of average paintings, especially looking at Series 2, Tools and Objects. His career has soared so far, and his paintings have a beautifully different experience than other watercolor paintings. The piece Rake in the Shadows, created with watercolor and mixed media on aquaboard, is a fairly mysterious and intriguing work of art. The contrast of a rustic, almost bright, red surrounded by dark blues and white makes your eyes jump around to every single aspect of the piece. The dark reddish brown radiates a sense of use and age to the rake itself. To me, when I first saw this piece, I did not think it was produced with watercolor. Ireland’s pristine attention to detail and careful mark making brings it to life. It makes me feel as though this is my window and my rake. It not only brings a lovely personal feel to the piece, but it also makes it different from his other more colorful and bright paintings. I truly do enjoy the painting's meaning and value, alongside the appreciation for Ireland’s time taken to curate such relations.