17 Jun Stop and Watch the Clouds: Michelle Purves
By David McKenzie
Since her early childhood in a remote village in Zimbabwe, Michelle Purves has always harboured a fascination with colour. Surrounded by landscapes made magical under the surreal light of the African sun, the young girl was moved by the beauty created by the marriage of light and the natural world.
What other children may have missed due to other distractions such as television, Purves was able to appreciate, and her love of nature was able to blossom fully, bringing with it an ability to notice the slightest detail that could turn the ordinary into the inspirational – a passing patch of light on a leaf, the rustle of dirt against a languid worm, the majestic explosion of sunlight reflected off a silvery fish. It is no wonder that such early impressions, from a place of expansive nature where time moves slowly, should stick with an artist throughout their life.
And so Michelle Purves’ paintings communicate this appreciation and understanding of light and nature. Her hues are endearing, emanating a warmth that demands a moment of contemplation. Their subject-matter is often implausibly simple and never formatically dominant, allowing the colours, textures and contrasts to take centre stage.
However, that is not to say the subjects are irrelevant. Rather, they are carefully chosen, and Purves frequently strips the scenescape of everything that is not the subject she wishes to explore, allowing the subject’s nuances and often overlooked character to be revealed. In particular, she displays an appreciation of the emotional potential and physical importance of clouds.
Commonly dismissed as unwanted obstructions to the aesthetic superiority of a bright sunny day, clouds, in Purves’ work, are championed as humble heroes: givers of gifts, above all the gift of all life, as the deliverers of rain and water. The clouds provide the sky with a canvas onto which light can project an endless array of designs and patterns, which we may then interpret as a reflection of human moods, from dark and moody to delicate and care-free. These paintings do not try to push an agenda or pass comment on socio-political problems, they are presentations of life and emotion, a reminder of our ever-changing moods – a habit we share with the sky itself.
Through self-education, Michelle Purves has developed her own style of painting that has proved popular with private collectors as well as galleries, and she had her first exhibition in 2002. As well as creating her own paintings, Purves is a well-known, passionate patron of the arts, having organised numerous exhibitions and classical music recitals to support emerging young talents. She has served as a committee member of the Sydney Opera House, given her services as a producer for the film company Equilibium Films, and she coordinates with an artistic education programme in India.
She may now be effortlessly at ease among high-art circles, gallery gala crowds and auction houses, but Michelle Purves has never lost touch with the rural, natural surroundings that provided her first impressions of the world. It is perhaps those impressions we have to thank for the deft mastery of light and contemplative respect for the natural world that give Purves’ paintings such deep evocative powers.
“Surrounded by landscapes made magical under the surreal light of the African sun, the young girl was moved by the beauty created by the marriage of light and the natural world.”
“Their subject-matter is often implausibly simple and never formatically dominant, allowing the colours, textures and contrasts to take centre stage.”
“The clouds provide the sky with a canvas onto which light can project an endless array of designs and patterns”
“Michelle Purves has developed her own style of painting that has proved popular with private collectors as well as galleries”