Issue Date: ABN - October 06, Posted On: 10/6/2006

Artist Profile: Michael Flohr
By Susanne Casgar, Editorial Director


 

Michael Flohr paints “Southern Rain” in the lobby of The Southern Company’s offices in Atlanta. 

"My biggest inspiration in creating my art is everyday life,” says artist Michael Flohr. “I have a huge passion to record humanity on canvas, the good and the bad; it is all beautiful to me. I strive to stress the familiar in my work and communicate a common thread among my subjects and my viewers.”

A native Californian, Flohr was enrolled in his first art class at age five. His family always encouraged his artistic talents, for which he is eternally grateful. Later on, he chose to pursue a degree at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

After five years of instruction, Flohr graduated from the Academy in 2000. He was honored with the “Best of Show” for his painting, “Irish Coffee,” at the Academy’s spring exhibition the same year. That piece and two others were later selected for exhibition at the de Young Museum, San Francisco’s oldest public museum, located in Golden Gate Park. “I couldn’t believe that my work was hanging next to other master painters, especially my biggest inspiration, Claude Monet. I’m really proud of that achievement,” says Flohr.

Shortly after graduation, he and his roommate left their 400-square-foot apartment near Powell and Bush in San Francisco and headed for Europe. “My Dad told me that most artists really suffer for their art, so I asked if sleeping on bunk beds for five years qualified,” Flohr says.

 

Flohr is shown with his wife, Melissa, and son, Emmett. 

His interest in European culture and art was enlightening for him and was then reflected in his artwork and new-found style. “It was this experience that led me to pursue the desire to capture the nuances of social interaction, city nightlife and cityscapes as subject matter in my work,” he says. “Seeing strangers intermingling in strange, new places is an inspiration to me. Actually walking into the European buildings with all of their atmosphere and history really made the study of the classics come to life.”

Flohr studied classical painting and drawing in school and fine tuned his skills.  “I couldn’t do what I do now if I didn’t have that background, nor could I have developed unless I had learned to paint and draw classically,” he says. “And my five classes in art history really made me appreciate the aura in the Sistine Chapel  and the cracks in the stairs at The Vatican.”

Flohr often starts a painting with a charcoal sketch. He will also use any medium available when the inspiration hits him. “I often have an idea, perhaps sitting in a restaurant, and will draw on a napkin or on a paper table top covering. I make notes about the colors when I have an idea, but don’t put color in at first. I don’t take color photos, only black and white, and then interpret the scene with my own colors,” he says. “I look for visual clues in a scene and then consider the overwhelming choices of color I can use to create my interpretation of an image. Observation is everything for me. Whether it’s seen, heard or read, it’s all connected to that which can be processed into a visual.”

 
“Crystal Cafe,” sized at 30 x 221⁄2 inches, is a limited edition giclée  of 195 on canvas with hand embellishing. 
How would he describe his style? An Abstract Expressionist and/or an Impressionist, perhaps, but  his style is his own. His artistic style of irregular and colorful forms that, seen from up close appear harmoniously abstract, but when seen from afar, appear realistic in style. Flohr’s paintings capture the extremes of both figurative and abstract art. When asked about his technique and how he feels his work differs from other contemporary artists, Flohr explains, “There is a flow that I try to keep in my painting that evolves into a story of colors and movement that breathe together. A coronation of small, square strokes of premeditated color creates a rhythm throughout a piece. Then I combine them with broad brush strokes that serve to ‘marry’ the elements together.”

Nowhere is this technique more apparent than in one of his most exciting and recent projects ,  “Southern Rain.” Commissioned by The Southern Company, the parent company of Georgia Power, Flohr was selected after a nationwide search for artists. “The piece shows people outside, having fun in the rain…and the power is on,” he says. Sized at 14 1⁄2   x 9 feet, Flohr’s work was done on scissor-lift equipment that took him 20 feet in the air. “I couldn’t use my normal painting tools, so I had to ‘supersize’ my equipment by buying the tools of house painters. I went to Home Depot to buy large brushes, a dry wall scraper to act as a palette knife and other dry wall tools. It was great to be challenged and great to do something that big,” he says.

 

“Stock Talk,” a hand embellished, limited edition giclée on canvas is available in an  edition of 195. 

Flohr has been influenced by the works of Piet Mondrian, Edward Hopper and John Singer Sargent. Although his paintings show a subtle resemblance to the work of Mondrian, with his colorful, geometric art, Flohr’s compositions are characterized by the most basic kinds of lines—straight horizontals and verticals; squares and cubic shapes, and by the use of primary colors. The fascination of city life characterized the work of Edward Hopper, but Flohr’s paintings, unlike Hopper’s stark works, are warm and inviting. His unnatural use of color does not dehumanize and show the starkness of city life, as does the work of Hopper. “Again, I take a black and white photo of the scene I wish to paint, so that when I actually start painting, I am forced to invent the colors.”

Flohr’s acceptance into the Society of Illustrators in 1999 elevated him into the ranks of his illustrious predecessors; Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth. His acceptance into a museum exhibition early in his career was also a terrific indicator of future success. In 2000, he was awarded the Herman Lambert Scholarship by the Society.

 
“Night at the Fox” is sized at 30 x 48 inches and is available in a limited edition of 195. 
Michael Flohr is represented by Crown Thorn Publishing, located in San Diego, and his work has been contracted for international distribution via limited edition, fine art publishing. His work can be viewed in over 70 galleries worldwide. ABN

For reprints of this article, call 800-867-9285, ext. 5503.

SOURCE
• Crown Thorn Publishing