Michael Piegdon

Michael Piegdon



About The Artist


I have trained as an artist since childhood. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Art. During my 40-year career I have developed and refined my art and have learned how to bring art to life and capture the essence of nature’s beauty on canvas. I was introduced to Watercolour at Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970's. One of my mentors was a professor named Michael Backi, who inspired the wet-on-wet technique that I has now refined over many decades. It has taken years of study and experience for me to gain precise and devout control of a very difficult medium and develop a very fluid individual style of painting. I do not draw on his canvas and then paint in lines, like many watercolourists. I paint directly on the canvas in a wet-on-wet technique that evolves into a finished loose painting without borders. This presents the raw magnitude and organic likeness of the natural landscape. I do not strive for photorealism but retains the essence of the scene portraying the message and atmospheric presence. I try and bring watercolour out of the sketch medium loosely used by many artists today, to fine art original finished paintings that will endure for centuries. This is what I am talking about when I use the term Fine Art Watercolour. I have been inspired by the likes of Constable and Turner where one gets a sensation of being in each of their paintings. I try to express the feeling and the majesty of the environment in my paintings that one can does not capture on film. To share one of my paintings is like sharing the experience of that special time and place. Some of my later artistic ventures include 3-D animation for television commercials, corporate design for business and video production. Videos include: "The Beautiful Blue Mountains" a music and video odyssey of the National Heritage Blue Mountains of Australia, "and "Everglades at Leura" for the National Trust of NSW Australia. My work has also been published in Artist Palette Magazine twice. I have been shown in public and private galleries in both the United States and in Australia as well as corporate and numerous private collections.