Mike Turpie Biography
Scottish born Mike Turpie attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (1973-1978) graduating with a Diploma in Drawing and Painting. During his studies, Turpie was awarded the Pat Holmes Memorial Prize for drawing and studied landscape painting under Peter Blake at Hospitalfield Summer School in Arbroath. After College, Turpie spent several years teaching art in schools in Edinburgh as well as being awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in the U.S.
Turpie was awarded the Duncan of Drumfork and Farquhar Reid Traveling Scholarships, which enabled him to travel to Aix-en-Provence and Northern Italy in order to study the work of Cezanne and Titian. He returned to Hospitalfield earlier that year having been awarded an artist-in-residency by the Alumni Association.
Turpie now works from his studio based in rural Angus and occasionally, at Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio. His work is featured in private, public, and corporate collections including Stadt Aschaffenburg, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tayside Health Board, University of Dundee Fine Art Collection
Turpie's early influences were Whistler, D.Y. Cameron and Goya. Sir Wm MacTaggart, Oskar Kokoscha, Jack Yates & Joan Eardley influence his expressionist work.
Notes on Turpie's series of eight paintings completed during June 2007:
I was working to express the extreme weather conditions present around the eastern coastline of Scotland at that time. The inclusion of figures working outdoors recall the early works of Van Gogh and also Millet. They exist as almost abstract elements with a complexity and tonal range at one with their surroundings. I view the work as a composition with no part having greater importance than any other. The distorted geometry of the houses and harbor wall interacts totally with the broad swathes of pigment suggesting sea and sky. Background and foreground features are equally important in a tonal and color sense. The intention of both works is to express emotion and promotes something grander and deeper than a simple representational illusion. Extreme wind and rain kept me focused in the studio while briefly venturing out to absorb and remember the beauty and drama of the Scottish skies. Rapid brushwork on thicker weave canvas and use of darker tones heighten the expression. The human figures are simplified into a series of loose brushstrokes.
Turpie uses a natural approach to creating. In every new piece, he allows this process to lead him on a journey of self-discovery without recourse to formula-driven approaches. In this way, Turpie has no preconception of the final result.
 Updated 07/29/2008 |
