Revelling in the medium of fun

PAINTER, poet, sculptor, teacher, West Clare-based artist Michael Reeves certainly can be described in lots of ways. But when it comes to his art, there is one way he would use to categorise it – fun.
The Limerick-born painter has been living in West Clare for more than a decade, using the unique landscape around him to create his works of art. An exhibition of his paintings is currently on display in the foyer of the County Museum in Ennis and will continue to be showcased until March 31.
“I left Limerick in the ’60s and went to live in England where I worked as a teacher, then I came back to Ireland in 1999 and I’ve lived in West Clare ever since. I had a long fondness for West Clare since I was a child, all of our holidays were spent there and it’s a very beautiful place,” he recalls.
He says his work is “deliberately non-photographic”. “We have millions and millions of great photographs of West Clare but photographs don’t interpret. I think the job of an abstract painter is to interpret the landscape and to read its moods and extrapolate those things from it. I’m really fond of the Loop Head peninsula, it’s wild, it’s very moody and it’s amazingly colourful. We do get a lot of dull weather here but when it’s bright, it’s spectacular,” he says.
“I do a lot of sketching but in West Clare, it’s very hard to work outdoors because the wind blows you and your stuff away a lot,” he laughs.
All of the works in this exhibition have been created using acrylics, a method that was vital for what Michael was trying to achieve with this body of art.
“I feel acrylics give a vibrancy to the kinds of subject matter I’ve been dealing with, whereas in other situations I would have used oils. The light, when it’s a clear sky, is really dramatic and I’m also very interested in the etchings on the rocks and the way they tell a tale of time. Acrylics were very important in showing this,” he explains.
It was while teaching in England that Michael developed his love of art, teaching art history as well as English. He went on to do a variety of art courses, covering painting, drawing and sculpture.
He says his travels have influenced his work, particularly visits to Berlin where he viewed works by Paul Klee, Howard Hodgkin and Hundertwasser.
“I haven’t travelled much by modern standards but I’ve been a few places. In Berlin, there were so many wonderful works there, which have really inspired me. The work is joyful, musical and very intriguing. It’s slightly puzzling and enigmatic, which is part of the fun of it. And it is fun, it isn’t knitted-brow stuff,” he says.
Michael has previously exhibited in the Hunt Museum, the de Valera Library, as well as in a number of group exhibits.
“I’ve exhibited before but the work is always changing and it’s always interesting and it’s always been re-interpreted. The work I did for my first show in the de Valera Library was in the main representational but there was a strong element of the tailing off of that and my moving into abstract work.
“With this exhibition, you see the influence of painters like Howard Hodgkin. I like his work a lot, it has a lot of vibrancy and an excitement about it but it’s also very simple. I think he reads the landscape in a very concise kind of way and that’s what I like to do. Really, making paintings is about having fun,” he says.
When asked what he wants his art to way to the world, he considers for a while before answering, “That everything around us is fascinating”.
“We look a lot but we don’t always see and by allowing ourselves to see we are constantly developing and allowing ourselves to be open to experience,” he says.
Not only is he a painter, Michael is also a member of the Clare Three Legged Stool Poets. He is also in the process of putting together of a book of his poetry titled Kelly.
“It’s largely autobiographical but it also covers the stories of an awful lot of people who left the country in their early years and then came back, that full circular journey. Writing and art are interchangeable in many ways, in that they inform one another,” he explains.
His future plans don’t stop there, with Michael aiming to continue his exploration on the theme of West Clare but this time, in the form of relief sculpture.
“I plan on using wood and found objects from the area for these works. The detritus of everyday life, like a discarded matchstick. Those things are a statement of the area as well. Very often, a piece of silver paper in the gutter can be just as beautiful as a diamond, depending on the way the sun catches it. It’s very different to this exhibition but I feel you’ve got to keep changing all the time to keep it alive,” he says.