Michael Sydney Moore’s paintings of faces are powerful, contemplative, and real. His fascination lies in the texture of skin, an intense stare, freckles, wrinkles and scars. For the artist it is these marks that tell the story of the person’s experience. We wanted to learn more about these monumental paintings of ordinary people.
Lisa: What made you first decide to become a painter?
Michael: People telling me I couldn’t become a successful one.
Lisa: What does painting the photographs you take of your sitters lend to how we perceive the images you work with?
Michael: Photography allows me to capture a moment that painting purely from life would restrict. In a sitting there are certain moments that in retrospect I feel capture the sitter very well. The ability to introduce these moments into your portraits is a powerful thing. There are of course purists that are opposed to photography; in my mind anything that enables you to portray your idea more thoroughly is a tool worth utilising.
Lisa: What is your favourite brand of paints and why?
Michael: Simply put Vasari because they are highly pigmented while retaining a softness to them; for me their they remain luminous when mixed which is paramount in painting portraits. Not over mixing paint to the extent that it looses a certain energy is something it takes a while to master, so I respect anything that enables this to be more easily achieved.
Lisa: How important is the surface that you paint on?
Michael: I think the surface I paint on is more about personal preference than ‘quality’. I have used ultra smooth fine linen that is very expensive that simply allows the paint to glide too much; not enabling you to stumble or dry brush that effectively. I prefer a canvas that is somewhat rough so the choice of smoothness is solely in my hands and not imposed by the canvas.
Lisa: Are you in control of every aspect of the painting process or are some elements left to chance?
Michael: No, most of good painting is a mistake you learn to make really well again and again, these mistakes are chance and if you don’t allow them to occur you’ll never move forward.
Lisa: What makes good subject matter?
Michael: Whatever interests you. Painting well is not about skill per se, it’s about becoming better at enjoying painting so that practice ceases to feel like practice.
Lisa: Would you paint anyone or is there any sort of selection criteria for who you paint?
Michael: I’m of the opinion that people wear their lives on their faces so I prefer to have a canvas that has a lot of life on it (I like painting older people). I am open to trying out different types of models but I find myself reverting to older models most often.
Lisa: Can you describe the place where you do the majority of your painting?
Michael: My studio has one wall that has giant open windows a a large barn door that allows natural light through. Natural light is a little cosmic gift to painters that bulbs cannot mimic, so its important to me that I make use of this whenever I can. Everything is painted white to bounce light around the room; some I know disagree with this approach thinking it best to have black that absorbs light around your work so that light is absorbs and softly given off, rather than reflected too starkly on the painting but I’ve found that white works well for me.
Lisa: Where online or in the flesh can we view more of your work?
Michael: My main website is www.michaelsydneymoore.com but Instagram is a good place to see little snippets of work in progress and my studio www.instagram.com/michaelsydneymoore
1 thought on “Michael Sydney Moore”
HELLO
Good Day,I Am Potter Taylor from NC,I am writing to
inquire about your work which i actually observed my wife
viewing on my computer.i must confess you got a unique
and amazing piece i love it all. my wife is an artwork lover
in all it divine and i can see she has interest in your work,i
wanna surprise her by purchasing a beautiful painting
artwork to gift her from your collections as her birthday
and our wedding anniversary is fast approaching please
you can get to me on available work on my email
([email protected]) Cheers
Potter
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