Michael Demain
Originals

Michael Demain resides in England

Michael was born in Accrington, a small town which lies amongst the Lancashire Pennines where he still lives today with his wife Michelle and their two children.

At school art was one of his favourite subjects as he found it easy and not a chore but he left without any qualifications as he was not committed academically. The next eighteen years were spent doing manual labour until in 1991 a chance meeting with well-known Dog and Wildlife artist Steven Townsend changed his life. Greatly inspired and encouraged by what Steve was doing he decided to try his hand. Being self taught he started off tentatively frightened to make mistakes but soon realised that to improve the mistakes had to be made, slowly he made progress and with his natural talent was soon ready to have his first solo exhibition which was a huge success. Encouraged by this he pressed on having more successful exhibitions and entering open shows. Even today he still finds a blank sheet of paper daunting and sometimes gets butterflies in his stomach before starting a large painting.

As he already had an interest in wildlife and especially birds it was natural that this would be his chosen subject and apart from landscapes doubts whether he would be inspired by anything else, "I am not in love with painting, but I do love wildlife and through art I can express this". He does however count himself very fortunate that he is able to paint wildlife for a living.
Most of his ideas for paintings come from things he has actually seen in the wild and so he doesn't struggle with composition which he feels is so very important in a painting " if the composition is weak it doesn't matter how well the subject is painted the final result will always be somewhat disappointing". Although he travels widely around Europe he finds that the Bowland fells and the Highlands of Scotland provide most of the reference material for his work and admits that some days he chooses to seek reference rather than paint and afterwards feels very guilty. Many of his paintings represent winter and early spring as he loves the low sunlight at this time of year.

His favourite bird is the Short-eared Owl and in the spring they return to nest in the Bowland, while watching these he also watches the Merlin which shares the same hillsides and valleys. The Merlin is one of his favourite subjects and all the reference he needs is in these hills. Although the Bowland fells are important for birds of prey with several species represented there are also many other species, notable on the fells the Ring Ouzel and the Stonechat and in the wooded valleys the Wood Warbler Tree Pipit and Redstart. A particular favourite of Michaels is the Common Sandpiper and he looks for their return in the spring

He turned professional in 1999 and most of his work is now bought privately by collectors and he sells through the Longridge Gallery in the Ribble Valley. Although not really a club or society man he is a member of the Marwell Wildlife Art Society and sells work at their annual show, he also exhibits at the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art and the British Falconry Fair.

Among his fellow artists he counts Carl Brenders as his favourite and he greatly admires his work, he also likes the work of Robert Bateman and Lars Jonsson

Bird Art
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