Mike Bagshaw: Drawing & Painting
Harold Riley, a friend of L S Lowry, ran a class for kids from Salford (That Classic Slum) and I was one of those kids. I went on to art college, but didn’t quite fit the art scene at that time. Art moved to the back burner while I became a forensic psychologist, then switched again to training and development, and later running my own consultancy. My final switch was to lecturing in leadership at Worcester University. And now I’m retired.
From 2005 I got serious about art, joined a life-drawing group, a portrait circle, and started an urban sketchers’ group. My special passion is portraiture. I have taught portrait workshops at Malvern St James High School, and elsewhere do portrait demonstrations, tuition groups and commissions.
In portraiture, there’s a tension between visible brush strokes of definite colour and the character whose image emerges. For me it's about looking, and converting what I see into marks with paint, or any medium, to create an illusion of the reality of the person in front of me.
I read voraciously about art and artists and have an expanding art library. I’ve gained some ‘golden nuggets’ about techniques and ideas, and I feel good if I can pass these on. I find my experience in training and development in the business world applies to creativity of any sort. The same principles can help people realise and develop their artistic potential. This can be a way for me to give back something with both individual and community benefits.
