Michael Workman: Mormon Artist
Michael Workman is a master landscape painter. He is considered one of the major American Contemporary Tonalist painters; his use of color, texture, and light create a dreamy effect, a balance between a realistic and abstract interpretation. During his early years of painting, he decided to go below the visible surface of a landscape and capture an emotional response. He has taught his technique in weeklong workshops at a variety of studios throughout the Utah, Texas, Washington, and Arizona.
Workman was born in 1959 and raised on a small farm in Highland, Utah. He now lives in Spring City, Utah, with his wife and five children. He earned his bachelor’s degree in drawing and painting and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University. He paid for his education by working as an architectural illustrator. According to one biography, “Workman started painting cows in graduate school when he was trying to find out how and what he wanted to paint. He chose cows because he had memories of them from his childhood, because they have geometric shapes that are easy to compose, and because they work well as metaphors for our physical existence and can be juxtaposed or set in such a way as to contrast with a spiritual existence-the light.”[1]
He says he “made a conscious decision to create artworks that appeal to those viewers without an education in the arts-to produce paintings that are successful as attractive scenes and to also have the pieces appeal to artists and to the educated or naturally poetic people who look for and find layers of meaning in his paintings.”[2]
Workman has been an invited artist at several major exhibitions including the Artists of America shows in Denver, Colorado; the Northwest Rendezvous in Park City, Utah; the Western Classics Show in Scottsdale, Arizona; “As They See It” Show at the Salt Lake City, Utah, Art Center; and the “LDS Artists” Exhibit at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served as a full-time missionary to Melbourne, Australia.
Workman has been featured in several publications including Leading the West—100 Contemporary Painters and Sculptors, by Don Hagerty, and in Utah Painting and Sculpture, by Dr. Vern G. Swanson. His work was featured on the cover sheet of the novel Lonesome Land (Bison Books). Articles about him and his work have appeared in magazines such as Southwest Art, Focus/Santa Fe Art Talk, Art of the West, and Utah Business.
