About the artist Michael Follin Davenport
I was born on March 16, 1949, in Seattle, Washington. I was driven by a need to express myself from an early age. As a mature artist, having painted for 60 years, I continue to satisfy this compelling need. The most significant change over the years has been my mastery of the different mediums I employ and honing my intuitive sense of where to go with them.
I began painting at twelve and decided to make painting my life’s journey. In high school, I spent as much time as possible in the art studios and painting at home in my bedroom. I developed a deep curiosity for the European art scene, from early Christian icon art to the iconic impressionists and modernists. I was obsessed with art history. All that wonderful art gave me goosebumps. While many of my friends were deep into their guitars, I became enthralled with painting pictures. I was alone in this pursuit, which was very isolating. It would lead to a deeper involvement in my art. I was intrigued by the great masters and mystified by their accomplishments. They taught me so much that I would later apply to my work.
In high school, I created ADG, or Art Discovery Group. The mission was to explore different art traditions, including poetry. With that in mind, I introduced a Peace Corps couple from Malaysia to share their cultural art traditions and our esteemed English teacher, Mr. Roberts, to discuss poetry as art. Our first gathering was at our much-loved art teacher’s home, Mrs. McDonald’s. The effort was a success, with good attendance and interest. When Mrs. McDonald saw my commitment to becoming a professional painter and my interest in art history, she took me under her wing. Together, we developed a format for a high school Art history class. Through our collaborative effort, this class became a unique learning experience for the students. During the class, we covered a lot of art history, but what made it great was that we learned a typical technique from each period of art history we studied. For example, we learned to do encaustic painting while studying ancient Greek art history.
Looking through my work, you will notice that I do not belong to any particular school of thought. Instead, I have focused on various schools of thought, gleaning ideas and elements of style from a broad range of sources. For me, the masters express possibilities to explore and convey the nuances still to be developed. I intuitively felt a deep sense of being able to read the thoughts and feelings of the masters through this study. In my understanding of this, I also found my intuitive core. I believe this is where all my paintings come from. I paint from my intuitive sense, upwelling into my unconscious mind through dreams and feelings. I’m tapping into the universal unconscious, the zeitgeist.
the San Fran Art Acad
Throughout my career, I have studied what the Modernists were doing in their work with line, shape, design, and color. I digested all that I could. I could use what I learned from their art to create my style. This toolbox of styles gave me the means to say what I needed to convey. With the freedom of Modernist color, I began to understand how emotion could be generated through its use. It was not difficult for me to incorporate their ideas into my work. Using color to express emotion quickly became second nature for me.
At nineteen in 1969, I was accepted and subsequently entered the Academy of Art in San Francisco. At the beginning of my first year, as I worked in the studios, I found that my work was viewed with great interest by some of my teachers and a few older students. Picking up on the vibrant energy of San Francisco, my freedom of expression took flight in a very fluid technique. My discovery of oil pastels at that time gave me a freedom I hadn’t had before. Oil pastels were an immediate palette of color that I could use spontaneously. Constantly flooded with ideas, this was a very direct way for me to get an idea down quickly. San Francisco, oil pastels, and my youth set me free and on fire. One teacher constantly challenged the students to make a color commitment while circling the studio, punching the air with his fist, and shouting, “Make that color commitment.” There was enthusiasm, and it was beautiful. I always jumped right in with the color. Because of my love of color, I have been working with it intensely since high school. Having a pretty good background in art history, I was well-versed in composition. I loved putting it down. I was quick and brutal in coming up with new designs every day.
Michael located third person from the left.
Because of this ability and my self-confidence, it was noted that I “worked with authority.” I was not the least sketchy. This impressed a few people because, in a short time, my instructor invited me to join the small group of honor students at the academy in their private studio. My talent was being recognized and rewarded. I was also invited to exhibit in the 1969 senior honors exhibit. (Please see the promotional poster included here.)
Andre Malraux, who was a French novelist, art theorist, and France’s first cultural minister of affairs, states in his book, (“Voices of Silence,” pg.19) “We all know that an artist’s supreme work is not one in best accord with any tradition – nor even his most complete and finished work – but his most personal work, the one from which he has stripped all that is not his own and in which his style reaches its climax. In short, the most significant work by the inventor of style.”
Now, in response to the one specific question I have been haunted by throughout my career, “Why do I work in so many styles?” I will say this in response. Style is something you become aware of very early in the game. I knew about style in my teens. I knew it was something one achieved, but how? Early on, as I started reading about the Modernist painters, I was intimidated by their various styles because I read a painting like reading a real person. I could see intelligence, humor, spiritual depth, and so on in an artist’s style. Style is a conduit to the inner being of an artist, but how was I to get my style? I worried because I did not want to be someone else’s style. The conundrum is that the more I studied each artist, it led me on a journey into myself and filled my artistic toolbox with a wide variety of techniques. So, when I express myself, and it’s time for me to pick up my brush, I go deep inside myself; I have the means to express what I am feeling or what is necessary for me to convey.
Everything I add to the canvas creates new problems that must be solved. This requires that I discover what the new painting is telling me so that I can know what my next move needs to be. I’m not a formula artist, so each new painting has unique demands. I’ve always wondered if I have a style because I habitually change my approach with each new painting. Lately, though, I have realized that I have a style. Through my process, the style becomes inevitable. Over my many years of painting, I have achieved my style by working in many stylistic directions. Ultimately, these excursions into style coalesced into my unique style.
Thank you
Michael F. Davenport
September 30, 2024
valley art studio