Michael Carlton Art
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Paintings
I mostly use acrylic paint for my paintings (although I sometimes I use some emulsion paint if I have any left-over after painting a mural...)
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I like to paint on various media including canvas, paper, board, wood and other surfaces and I work in a variety of sizes ranging from very small to very large...

My paintings are always spontaneous expressions and I will hardly ever plan a painting in advance - I just like to let them come to life in their own unique way:
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That being said I do usually stick to a certain style whenever I'm creating a painting (though I will occasionally intermingle various style to create interesting hybrid effects from time to time).
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Acrylic and Emulsion Painting on Wood - "Opportunity"

When I first started out painting I attempted to recreate the same style as my Ink Drawings:
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Ink Drawing - "Up in the Sky"

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Ink Drawing - "Boiling"

I soon found this wasn't a very effective approach as the medium wasn't conducive to that style of work (it felt like I was going against the grain and that each painting was a bit of a struggle - which I didn't like because I like my paintings to be fun!)

​Since then I developed a number of painting styles - some of them colourful and uplifting and some melancholic and dark. I've put some of the painting styles below:
"Brush Wipe" Style
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The Brush Wipe Style was one of the first styles I developed when I started painting.

When I first started out I would wipe any excess paint from my brushes onto paper before rinsing them in water. After a while I noticed that this "wiping" of the brush was creating some very interesting and colourful effects.

From that point on I made sure I always had some acrylic paper to hand when I was painting so I could capture the spontaneous brush-strokes and random colour-schemes that would often emerge in this "Brush-Wipe" style.


"Mega Stripe" Paintings
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"Mega-Stripe" paintings are extra large versions of what I call a Carltonian Stripe paintings.

In this method I have a specific way of applying the stripes to the painting that makes them visually "push" off of one another. This pushing creates a certain tension between the stripes that makes the painting appear to be larger than it is.

When this method is applied to a large canvas that energy gets amplified and gives the painting a visual magnetic resonance that radiates into the surroundings.


"Mondrian" Style
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"Mondrian Style" paintings are so called because they look like the paintings of the 20th century Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.

I'm not wanting to rip Mondrian off or anything, it's just a similar thing with composition and colour done in my own way ;-D

"Simple Shape" Paintings
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As the name suggests "Simple Shape" Paintings consist of just a few simple shapes playfully and spontaneously placed onto canvas or board.

This style has a very minimal and almost childlike quality that also has a certain purity and innocence to it.

​The thing I personally like about this style is that even though there are only a few shapes you almost always see sometime new when look at it.


Black and White Face Paintings
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Black and White Face paintings are a few black acrylic shapes arranged on a white background to suggest the appearance of a face.

That is to say, when I'm creating a painting like this I'm not thinking or trying to paint a face I'm simply applying circles and lines to the surface in places where the eyes, nose, mouth should and then letting the character of the face emerge.

It's a subtle point, but this "reverse process" seems to paradoxically give ensuing visage a unique life of its own...


Original Paintings for Sale
I have a range of original paintings for sale.

To find out more and to see what's available please
​get in touch for a Free Consultation.

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   © Michael Carlton Art 2020
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