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**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · 5h

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

CHAINS OF THE SEA (2018)
Acrylic on Canvas - 12" x 16"

A small study for a larger planned painting that never happened. I began working on this at the same time as the cover for Words of Radiance back in 2013. 1/3

Two weathered concrete pylons rise from tidal waters, which reflect light in a glossy sheen but are shallow enough to show the sand of the shore beneath. A loop of chain, weighed down by a padlock, dangles between pylons. The way around on either side of the pylons is clear, raising a question of what the lock is for. The chain is secured to metal loops anchored on rusty plates at the top of each pylon. Short nubs of rebar extend from the eroded concrete at the top, contrasting the gray sky. A hazy band of sea green defines the horizon.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #leftoversandpalettegremlins

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · 2d

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

PASSAGE: THE RAINBOW (1991)
Acrylic on Canvas - 36" X 48"

The surface meaning of my Passage paintings is technical—it signifies a passage from working nearly exclusively in acrylics to attaining a greater technical flexibility in oils. 1/2

A massive stone arch straddles the horizon. The milky white stone texture of the "rainbow" stands against misty lavender sky. Gray-blue lines mark randomly patterns of interconnected lines and shapes. Circle, egg, broken ladder, swirl, hour glass—none of the shapes or lines repeat. Transparent spheres, each containing a solitary flame, float toward the arch. A long causeway extends out across a channel of blue water to the center of the arch. The channel splits what appears to be a futuristic city as seen from very high up. Skyscraper-like structures appear tiny against a stretch of flat concrete as they cast long shadows that run parallel to the horizon.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · 4d

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

GRAVITY (2002)
Acrylic on Canvas - 35" x 43"

Once when I was being sedated for surgery and I was counting backwards, “99, 98, ...” I felt this surge of irresistible calm sweep over me like a vast tide of night. While I floated away, I felt myself become totally, completely relaxed. 1/3

With head laid back and arms spread, a woman with golden blonde hair sinks back into a mound of solid gray rock. Her eyes are closed even as her face is turned up to the sky. She wears a white t-shirt and drab green sweatpants, but her feet are bare. Hazy hills roll in the distance beyond. Low-lying clouds mostly obscure the sky, but a pattern of crisscrossing contrails can be seen higher up echoing the pattern of curves and intersecting lines drawn in the round of the stone where the woman rests. The pattern is painted on the rock in strokes of varying weight and in the immediate foreground those lines seem slightly recessed.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 29

Mar 29

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

PATH (2016)
Acrylic on Panel - 12" x 16"

This painting featuring my granddaughter Seren was done for the inaugural Leftovers and Palette Gremlins gallery. Every week I set out to complete a small piece inspired by paint marks or other found patterns. 1/3

A young girl wearing a blue sundress and white strappy sandals takes a step along a raised grassy path in what appears to be a gently flowing maze. Her hair is drawn back into short pigtails. At her side, she absently holds a daisy as her eyes—which seem to be pressed closed—focus downward. Long, soft shadows fall diagonally, deepening in the winding channels between adjacent tracks. In total, the walkways wind and swirl creating a pattern reminiscent of the folds of the cerebral cortex. Drawing attention to the wider gaps, shallow water reflects in highlights of blue. There are no walls or substantial barriers; it would be easy enough to hop across to another trail.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #leftoversandpalettegremlins

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 27

Mar 27

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

RIMRUNNER (2011)
Oil - 18” x 28”

A painting in The End of Nature subset of my personal work, which represents humanity as somewhat oblivious to the support that nature provides for them. 1/2

With flowers decorating her long dark hair, a young woman draped in flowing white fabric spreads her arms wide as she dances along the top of a moss covered wall. The narrow path set high in the clouds unwinds like a ribbon, zigzagging left to right and back again. As the path recedes into the distance breaks become larger and more apparent.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 25

Mar 25

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

ISLAND (2007)
Acrylic on Panel - 30" x 40"

Only by cutting our ties to our “island” can we discover what lies beyond. 1/2

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/island/

Surrounded by a circle of colorful glass orbs, a woman levitates above a grassy island oasis in a parking lot of cracked asphalt. A shooting star arcs down overhead across sky filled with billowing clouds. Rolling her shoulder, she turns towards its trajectory across fields of wheat and a horizon painted with golden light but she can't reach there while tethered to the island by a long strip of cloth tied around her ankle. The lead restraining her is knotted low on an ornamental staff staked at the edge of the grass. In her left hand she holds a metal loop that seems to have captured a green glass orb from the floating circle. Her right arm can be seen only in contour behind the flow of white fabric flapping in the breeze. The front edge of the cloth draping her covers only down to her hip. A slit in the side exposes skin from her waist up to her chest. Her legs and one shoulder remain bare.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 20

Mar 20

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

PRUDENCE (1996)
Acrylic on Panel - 12" x 11"

The classical notion of Prudence is an important theme to me, as it was to the ancient Greeks. 1/2

Stepping through a break in a wall made of ammonite fossil spirals, an adolescent girl with straight blonde hair clutches a glass pyramid to her chest. An owl perches on her shoulder with wings flared as if taking off or just landing. A plain brown cloak wraps across her shoulders mostly covering the darker tunic beneath. The ends of a long green sash, tied at her waist, dangles down to loose white stockings. A squirrel stops at her feet to snack on a nut. In front of her, leaves are strewn about the perfectly manicured lawn, which quickly gives way to placid water. Uniform stone blocks border the water's edge. Behind her, a mass of clouds billow. Thinner clouds cross dramatically on a diagonal giving the sky a hint of motion.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 18

Mar 18

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

SUNFLOWER (2010)
Acrylic on Panel - 12" x 18"

It's her sanctuary...an echo of something I experienced when I was younger.

Anyone familiar with my work will know how much I’m drawn to concrete. Images like this pop into my head at unexpected times. 1/2

A girl in yellow jacket hugs a teddy bear while standing at the center of a Fibonacci spiral that unwinds labyrinth-like on the face of a domed structure. Off panel in the foreground, the sun squats low casting long shadows of skeletal trees across weathered concrete. The sliver of sky overhead is cloudy gray. Geese flap by in chevron formation migrating toward skeletal trees lit with golden light, warmth revealed at the edge of the retreating dome as it slopes downward toward an unseen horizon.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 13

Mar 13

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

THE END OF NATURE (1998)
Acrylic on Gessoboard - 28" x 22"

The first in what became a series of paintings about our relationship with nature. 1/2

A woman in a plain dress with long billowing sleeves walks atop a high canopy of leaves. As she approaches the edge, she seems unaware of any danger. Her eyes are fixed indirectly off-panel. The warm glow of sunset washes over her and paints the sky in tranquil layers of peach and lavender. Absently the woman holds a ribbon strung between her hands. With the implied motion of her step, the ribbon brushes her thigh as a red glass heart dangles behind bobbing at the end of its loop. Sinuous trunks of thick textured wood support the flat-top of the canopy upon which she walks. Seeking perch, crows glide between the slithering tendrils that support her. The dichotomy of worlds is clear; the vantage above offers no perspective of below and what holds it all up.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 11

Mar 11

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

THE REACH (1999)
Acrylic on Canvas - 48" x 30"

Almost a Lumen painting, in which figures are trying to work their way out of enclosed spaces and get into the light. 1/2

In a vast chamber lined with square concrete panels, a woman grips an iron ring to hang suspended in a sideways T. A taut chain extends from the ring on a diagonal down to another metal loop where she anchors her bare feet. Gravity tugs on her fiery orange hair as she reaches down to touch a broad band of mist. The hood of her loose white top spills down as do both sleeves, one bunching at the shoulder to expose her arm—her torso prevents it from falling farther—while unobstructed the other sleeve billows loosely. There is some curvature to the wall behind her, which tapers inward at the top. Boards are tacked in staggered lines extending ladder-like up the wall. A grungy tactile delight, the place looks weathered with tattered cloth draping the concrete in places. A variety of openings are covered by rusty grates or metal plates.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Mar 6

Mar 6

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

UNWINDING (2021)
Acrylic on Gessobord - 10" x 11 ½”

The paintings in The End of Nature series are concerned with our relationship to the environment and how we need to care for it. Here, the young boy takes a moment to just enjoy it. 1/3

A tightening concrete spiral overgrown with moss takes the shape of a huge flower unwinding. A boy sits on the outer edge of the spiral with one leg dangling down and the other knee up with hands cupped around it.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Feb 25

Feb 25

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

THE DIVINING HEART (2005)
Acrylic on Canvas - 36" x 24"

"Stepping stones" of ammonite fossils represent the lessons of history and are the only havens of safety for the figure in the foreground. 1/2

A dark haired beauty stands on a spiral fossil that rises barely above the surface of shallow water. A path of these ammonite stepping stone meanders out across placid water past a natural breakwater of rocks but doesn't quite reach the horizon. She doesn't appear to notice the path forward; she's stopped to admire a red glass heart that dangles from a cord. Her eyes aren't fixed on it though as her thoughts retreat inward. The pure white cloth draping her body spills down to reveal the bare skin of her back.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Feb 18

Feb 18

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

GLIMPSE (1992)
Acrylic on Canvas - 48" x 36"

I think this is the first time I used the red glass heart as a symbol for the immediate and/or material possessions. 1/2

A young woman in a short lavender dress sits with one knee under her and her other leg flared to the side. As she rests her weight comfortably on one arm, palm planted on the sand, her eyes settle on a red glass heart that she slowly draws across the sand by a string. A crack in the concrete wall behind her casts a sliver of light onto the sand. Through the tall meandering crack calm water can be seen in the distance. The crack splits the corner of a yellow triangle painted point down and worn. In the upper right, five-pointed white stars that carry off panel form an arc over eroding blue paint. A sign on the left reads "Armenia" but is cut off at the R. Rust stains trail from holes in the paneled concrete. Among the debris along the base of the wall is a rusty anchor and a broken ladder resting on its side.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Feb 13

Feb 13

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

EDGEDANCER (2002)
Acrylic on Gessoboard - 28" x 22"

A cautionary, “All good things come to an end...”

While she dances away her day, the ground which supports her erodes into nothingness.

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/edgedancer/

A woman in a white linen shawl dances carefree along a high grassy ridge that bends and twists into the hazy distance. She glances not at the narrow footing ahead but off to the side. Her arms are out for balance while her eyes are pressed shut as if she's lost in thought. Far ahead along the upper edge of the painting breaks are visible along the ridge. Vertical segments stand like the legs of a broken bridge with gray sky showing through as the wall-like rim meanders to the edge of the painting and back. Shorter impassable segments come more frequently as the trail winds back into nothingness. The woman sees none of it as she daintily high steps in the foreground. Low clusters of wildflowers sit lilac on the verdant green grass as the occasional butterfly hovers nearby.

Detail from EDGEDANCER featuring the woman in white linen shawl with the high grassy ridge winding in front of her until it fades in the hazy distance.

Close detail from EDGEDANCER of a woman with shoulder length blonde hair wearing a white linen shawl. Her arms are out for balance as she high steps along a high grassy ridge.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Feb 11

Feb 11

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

THE CROSSING (1997)
Oil on Canvas - 30" X 60"

The uncertainty of and inescapable attraction to the concept of life after death.

All of my Passage works use the dream-object of the lighted bubbles—symbols of spirit or unfettered consciousness—to convey the idea of movement from one state of mind to another, a transition to a more open and lighted place; a release.

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/crossing/

In a grassy field stands a leafless tree with limbs bowing gracefully left. Bathed in golden light, bare branches twist and spread like blood vessels against pale sky. Shadow falls across a trunk mostly stripped of bark, and several splintered limbs lie lifeless on the nearby ground. Extending in a line from this gnarly detritus, mist rises off well-manicured lawn as if the ground itself is exhaling. A transparent sphere containing a single flame floats low across the land while a small stream meanders, falling directly behind the sphere as if guiding it along an intended path. Barely visible in a lemony wash that defines soft rolling hills, a white starburst—possibly another sphere blinking out—sits far afield, tinting the bushy topped trees that line the background distance.

Detail from THE CROSSING featuring a transparent sphere containing a solitary flame, floating over a fallen branch resting on plush green grass. The sphere intersects the line of a tiny stream that meanders off in the distance. To the left, mist rises off the softly rolling grass. In the distance, bushy topped trees stand hazy, shifting in hue to yellow on the right.

Detail from THE CROSSING featuring the leafless husk of a tree. The limbs are twisted bowing to the left. Several branches have splintered off and fallen to the ground where they lay on the plush grass. Below the branches, the trunk is mostly stripped of bark. Far afield, another sphere winks out in a subtle starbust that blends into the lemony wash near the horizon.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Feb 6

Feb 6

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

THE LEAVETAKING (1992)
Oil on Canvas - 18" x 48"

I planned for this to be a large "preliminary" for a new work in his Passage series that I would paint in oils. 1/3

On a gently arching slope of smooth sand, a woman is down on all fours with her head resting against a transparent sphere glowing with golden light. Her eyes are closed and her expression peaceful as she wraps arms around the sphere. A long white satin cloak mostly covers her but she appears to be naked underneath. One leg is drawn up to her chest and the other extends back as the fabric ripples as it recedes down the slope. Behind her is a cloudy lavender sky.

#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

**Michael Whelan** @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art · Feb 4

Feb 4

Michael Whelan @MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art

FLOWERS AND WEEDS (1997)
Acrylic on Canvas - 36" X 48"

When my son Adrian was 3 or 4 years old, we used to go to an abandoned construction site where there were huge slabs of concrete embedded with iron reinforcing rods. 1/4