Michael Comley Paintings 1990-2024

‘Painting and studying art was a joy and escape. I loved the smell of turpentine in themorning.’ Michael Comley

Michael’s motivation for this exhibition is a kind of therapy. Now 78, we see him bringing together his life and love for his family, London and his home in Barnes, as well as travelling abroad, through his paintings. His work reflects everything he has learned throughout his creative career, observing the important and significant moments in his life.

He works in different media, predominantly oils, painting his family and landscapes where he finds them. Michael particularly likes to explore the unexpected, subtle beauty and sometimes drama of suburbia on his doorstep in London: lamplit back streets, empty railway stations, hidden pathways, empty parks. London is full of ‘hidden’ villages like this, all different, he says. “I like to work with chiaroscuro, half light and darkness.” A man walking down a suburban pathway could almost be Gandalf, or Robin Hood. He likes the bleak drama of a railway station in winter, but made magical in the ‘golden hour’ between sundown and night. And trees: Michael is “slightly obsessed with trees, London needs them.” he notes. In landscapes he looks for the potential of light, framing and composition: the shadow of a palm tree on a wall in Marrakesh, rather than the tree itself, with an old man juxtaposed against a modern motorbike and public phone. A sunny beach in California, but covered in an ethereal rolling midday fog. The sea creeping in from the North Sea on a lonely stretch of coast at dusk. His daughter and her mother swimming on holiday, but the painting stripped of other bathers, focussed only on their relationship, alone against a dark sea.

This is a retrospective exhibition, which also includes more recent work. Apart from Michael’s paintings, there will be the opportunity to buy fine art limited edition prints. A percentage of profits from this show will be donated to the mental health charity Mind, who bring vital understanding and support to young people and families dealing with mental health issues, including Michael’s own. A PV will take place on 26 October from 6 pm - 9 pm.