I have been painting since starting art school in 1971 in Canberra. I’ve had several solo exhibitions, participated in group exhibitions and been a finalist in the Sulman Prize, Fishers Ghost Art Award and the Mosman Art Prize. My work has increasingly focused on arrangements of simple visual elements like shape, colour and line, rather than specific imagery and narrative.

I do find it difficult to explain my work. In a way the paintings are their own explanation of my attempts to make a painting. There is a lot of experimentation, mostly through trial and error. A fragment of one idea may evolve into another arrangement with new visual relationships. Chance and randomness are contained and reorganized. It’s a collage process with a very deliberate shaping of form. Clarity and impact are important. So is intuition and feeling.

Michael Beare, May 2025