Michael McCormack

Michael is an oil painter with an honours degree in Fine Art – painting, from the Crawford College in Cork, Ireland. His work has always been based on where he lives and his experience of that environment - and as such, is autobiographical. In the 90s he was a plein air painter working on location in various places from Cork, Edinburgh, Cornwall and Hawaii before relocating to Wellington, where he painted from the McCormack Studio Gallery in Island Bay from 2003-2024. Michael continues to paint in his private studio, and can be found at his outlet on The Parade on Saturday mornings.

Michael’s motivation to paint remains a mystery to him, but he is inspired to document his experience of being in a moment and how he got there, in an oil painting. The path is usually of equal importance to the view, while a patch of sunlight is transformative. In the studio he is enamoured by the painting process, the smells and textures of oil paint and trying to make a painting work – from the excitement in the early stages, the frustration when it stops working, to editing and hopeful resolution. Not always. It’s 100% about the journey.