"Bringing the Museum to You"

By permission of the artist, The Cyber Art Show is pleased to feature the second of two 12-piece Exhibitions of works by American contemporary Impressionist painter Michael Helfen  (born 1945 in Fort Benning, Georgia).

 

Michael is currently a fine art impressionistic painter. He has worked with the arts as a teacher and world traveler for forty-four years and currently is an adjunct professor of Language and Literature and the Humanities at Cape Cod Community College.

 

He loves the dunes and marshes of each Cape Cod town and focuses on Cape Cod landscapes, but hasn’t found anything he doesn’t like to paint. Light is special on Cape Cod: The playful nature of water and light reflects objects' appearance from moment to moment. Reflections of color and the prismatic way an object’s shape changes as light bounces off a boat, a dune, a shack, the sand, the blades of marsh grass, and, of course the water create a kaleidoscope. Cape Cod is in one of those unique “light baths” all day long from sunrise to sunset.

 

Michael's favorite European locations are Italy, especially the Amalfi Coast and Italian fishing villages of the north; France from top to bottom, and the Greek Islands, anywhere there are boats, shacks, sunlight, and lots of color.

 

Each image he sees is captured first in a photograph. He loves the delicacy and innocence of watercolor, its transparence and lightness, even with solid objects or the petals of a flower. Each of his paintings starts with a watercolor sketch. He loves oil’s texture, richness, vibrancy, depth of color, and intensity.  He loves the vividness, sparkle and the textures of acrylic mediums, and the challenge of organizing and capturing an image quickly, before the acrylic dries. And some images are best left as a photograph.

 

Michael is a juried member of the Cape Cod Art Association both as a fine artist and as a photographer. He is a member of the Yarmouth Art Guild, and Village Crafters. He is represented by The Artists’ Paintbox Gallery in South Yarmouth, Bass River and The Cooley Gallery in Leesburg, Virginia. His  work may be seen at The Cape Cod Museum of Art Gift Gallery in Dennis and at Gatherings by the Sea in Dennis.  He paints commissions. His paintings may be seen at his home by appointment 508-888-3133.

 

- Image of the Day -

 

"Spring Tide on the Marsh"

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Twelve Pieces by Contemporary Artist

 

Michael Helfen (Born 1945)