Michael Parkes is an American-born artist living in Spain who is best known for work in the areas of fantasy art and magic realism.
He specializes in painting, stone lithography and sculpture.
He also creates limited-edition Giclée images.
He studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas and then travelled for three years throughout Asia and Europe.
Numerous international exhibitions underline the importance of Parkes' work.
"I have always felt a desire to make sculpture. I thought about it for a very long time before I finally mustered up the courage to see if I had what it takes.
On my 50th birthday, with no previous experience, I located a foundry in Florence, Italy and began to work on my first models.
I chose my birthday because for me, birthdays symbolize new beginnings and represent auspicious opportunities to try new and possibly daunting ventures.
I had no idea what a wonderful door this particular birthday would open for me.
In the beginning I only created one or two sculptures a year because I still had other commitments, mainly painting and stone lithography.
However, when my work in stone lithography came to an end, my focus immediately turned to sculpture with increased intensity.
It is clear to me now that the women and otherworldly beings I had been painting and drawing over the years were waiting to come to life three dimensionally.
About my patinas: In 1991, my first ten sculptures were cast in Florence, Italy with the traditional Florentine patinas, used for centuries in Italy.
I worked closely with the master craftsman, Piero Bertelli, from the beginning of each sculpture to the final patina.
The foundry only worked with this patina, the same one used by the great sculptors of the Renaissance: Michelangelo, Donatello, Cellini, and so on.
When I began to receive requests for larger sculptures and different patinas, I transferred the casting to a foundry in Berkeley, California.
They had more experience in the colored patinas that I wanted to experiment with".
Michael Parkes è un artista di origine Americana che vive in Spagna, meglio conosciuto per il lavoro nei settori dell'arte fantasy e del realismo magico.
È specializzato in pittura, litografia in pietra e scultura.
Crea anche immagini Giclée in edizione limitata.
Ciò che è insolito di Michael Parkes è che nelle sue opere gli elementi metafisici e spirituali sono uniti alla realtà.
Il suo lavoro evoca un'atmosfera misteriosa, che spesso può essere decifrata solo con l'aiuto della mitologia antica e della filosofia orientale.
