Michael Canning

Michael Canning has developed an idiosyncratic visual language driven by a commitment to his pictorial research. Interestingly, Canning was originally trained as a sculptor before turning his attention to painting. His distinct juxtaposition of planes, particularly between foreground and background, is certainly the result of an approach to image-making motivated by spatial concerns. The plants and flowers he depicts are varieties found during walks in County Limerick where the Irish artist resides. Canning holds up the flowers, rotating them between his fingers so they are always showing their most attractive side as he paints their every appendage.
Canning’s work is frequently considered as records of botany. In fact, the artist has little interest in the specimens he paints. He pursues a visual dynamism that can only be achieved by the combination of colours, shapes and planes. His subjects are thus simple tools in his relentless quest towards compositional vitality. One might even say that Canning’s work is musical, not only because of the rhythmic juxtaposition of words used for his evocative titles, but also because of quiet dynamism of his botanical figures, which all appear to be captured amidst a gleeful dance.