CONGRATULATIONS MIKE!

Mike Maron has tied for 6th place in a major international online competition with his 30 x 30″ oil painting, “Cleaning the Steadying Sail”.

 

2020’S BEST OIL PAINTERS NAMED BY 25 GALLERIES

Painters, photographers, sculptors and digital artists from 62 countries competed in the most prestigious online art call, AMERICAN ART AWARDS, where 25 of America’s best galleries and museums score art in 50 categories. The category in which Mike Maron placed is Category 1 – Oil – Human Figure.

 

Mike Maron in His Own Words:

I am currently drawing inspiration from the lobstermen and women who I observe working along the southern Maine coast.  Theirs is a way of life that is threatened by both climate change and the progressive loss of working waterfront.  I am personally drawn to artwork that depicts what life was like in the past and like the idea of creating art that will give future viewers a glimpse of this profession. I am particularly drawn to their fishing equipment, which can be both colorful and worn looking from years of hard use.  I am interested in unusual perspectives and how colors and light and shadow interact with one another to describe a form.

 

Biography:

Mike Maron was born in Long Beach, California in 1949.  His initial foray into art was as a ten-year old when his parents enrolled him in watercolor lessons.  A gradually developing (and undiagnosed until some years later) case of nearsightedness diminished his interest however.  (How can you paint something that you can’t see clearly?)  By the time he was outfitted with glasses, he was on his way to a career in science, earning a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1976.  After a stint as a postdoctoral fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin, he taught medical students how their lungs function and did research in pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology at the Northeast Ohio Medical University. After retiring and moving to Maine with his wife Dawn in 2007, and some fifty years after his first lessons, Dawn and artist Joye Moon convinced him to pick up a paintbrush again. Since that time, he has been privileged to learn from artists Joye Moon, Judith Kinsman, Guy Corriero, Dennis Rafferty, Russel Whitten, Susan Roux, Dan Graziano, and of course his immensely talented wife.

Mike paints in oil, acrylic, and watercolor and is a member of the Art Guild of the Kennebunks.  His paintings have been juried into shows of the New England Watercolor Society, the Rockport Art Association, the University of Southern Maine, and the Union of Maine Visual Artists.  His work can be seen at the Wright Gallery in Cape Porpoise, Maine, and online on both his website, mikemaron.artspan.com and saatchiart.com.

 

Juried shows (last five years):

2015 – Orcas Island Birdfest, Eastsound, WA,  All Things Birds and Beautiful Show
2015 – The Port Gallery, Kennebunkport, ME, Spring Fling Show
2016 – New England Watercolor Society 15th Biennial North American Open Show, Gloucester, MA
2017 – Seventh Annual Fall Yarmouth Art Festival, Yarmouth, ME
2018 – University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME, Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape Exhibition.
2018 – Roux and Cyr Gallery, Portland, ME, Capturing Light Exhibition
2018 – Eighth Annual Fall Yarmouth Art Festival, Yarmouth, ME
2018 – New England Watercolor Society 16th Biennial North American Open Show, Duxbury, MA
2019 – UMVA Gallery, Portland, ME, The Way Life Is – Maine Working Families and Communities Exhibition
2019 – Ninth Annual Fall Yarmouth Art Festival, Yarmouth, ME
2019 – Light, Space and Time Online Gallery 9th annual Seascapes online show
2020 – Light, Space and Time Online Gallery Figurative online show

2020 – Light, Space and Time Online Gallery Solo Art Series show

Awards:

2015 – American Art Awards, 4th place, Watercolor, Human Figure
2016 – Art Guild of the Kennebunks August Show, Best of Show Award
2018 – Art Guild of the Kennebunks Award Show, 1st Place, Acrylics
2020 – One of four winners of Light, Space and Time Online Gallery Solo Art Series Show

 

Memberships and Distinctions:

Art Guild of the Kennebunks