Featured Artist On the Blog Today? Michael Ambrose

It's been a while since we've featured an artist on this site. Well, we're back at it. The tradition continues. HAA artist Michael Ambrose has been waiting a long time (very patiently, I might add) to have his work displayed here, but the wait is over. Above? A small sample of his paintings. Below? An accurately paraphrased version of his bio. Enjoy.

In 1989, Michael took a class in painting portraits in oils, in the UK. He was planning to spend the next few years sailing the world's oceans and had decided he needed a new project to take with him for the mental exercise it would provide.

While at sea, he did very little painting as he quickly discovered that sailing, provisioning, boat maintenance, and all the fun things to do in each new port left little time for anything else.

So it was not until he decided, in 2004, that he was getting too old to be roaming the world's oceans, sold his sailboat, and took up residence in Henderson, NV, that he began to paint in earnest.

He joined the Henderson Senior Center's Art Class, which meets every Monday for two and a half hours, and has continued painting there ever since, under the expert tutelage of Icel Mitkiff.

Later that year, he applied and was granted membership within the Henderson Art Association. He has remained a member and displayed work at various HAA exhibitions.

In 2006, Michael took a 2-week art course at the renowned art center in St. Ives, Cornwall, England at the advice of an artist relative. As a result, he has broadened the subject matter of his paintings, which were almost exclusively portraits. Now his body of work also includes street scenes, beach scenes, animals, and seascapes.