FACULTY

Dejan Atanackovic 
Laura De Tanti
Silvia Ghelardini
Sue Kennington
Franca Marini
Melissa Morris
Lisa Nonken
Jeff Shapiro
Walter Safatti
Jacqueline Tune
Michael Eldridge
Valeria Indice
Filippo Manganelli
Silvia Giorgi

Michael Eldridge, Professor of Art, Painting

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Michael Eldridge is a rare master of painting whose landscapes are flights of fantasy, both retinal and mental, which appear to us as an intense energy of heat and colour. He uses a rich and sharp palette and confronts us with layers and surfaces which challenge our sense of normality. The results are improbable visual maps of lands and nature; dreams of an ideal never-land.
He has for some time worked in the shadow of the Sibillini mountains in Le Marche, producing a seemingly limitless quantity of work, only part of which finds itself framed and forced into the world outside of his imagination. He is, too, an excellent photographer and his images in this medium follow his paintings in essence. You not only see them but can almost hear them and feel their heat and smell the landscapes he depicts.

He is an avid traveller and his work is often an amalgam of things he has experienced; rivers and gorges, different climates, lakes and roads along his way. He is like a bird in the air, looking sometimes at a synthetic world as did the Futurists with their aeropitturi; but he flies slowly, precisely measuring and freezing the moment so that the landscape doesn’t slip away beneath your gaze. So his vision penetrates surfaces, chooses its own height and temperature and takes you aside to experience and seize the ephemeral.

From the sky he sees and captures light and energy and plays in the space between earth and heaven and delights in the inter-play between them, not just in the light of day but often in the dark of night.

These arid, bare, landscapes show only a rare tree, sometimes the trace of an animal, but never human presence; a complete absence of human activity; an exclusive relationship between him and the Universe.

His painting is pure abstraction, especially in his use of colour. There is no detectable influence from any school or other artist, except perhaps the ‘Fauves’ in his use of colour and in a looser sense, with the abstract painting of Rothko.

Eldridge is a multi-faceted cultural operator whose significant life experience in Europe, USA and Africa has molded him into a painter whose work reveals a wealth of original ideas that will not fail to arouse interest.

Massimo Duranti,
Author, critic, curator


www.MichaelEldridge.net"
Studio Eldridge" Blog
Physik Garden collaboration 
Red & Blue Art Factory Collaboration 
Trees and Sky Collaboration
Star Stone Creativity Workshops
Tiger Eagles Creativity Coaching

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Education: 
Art Education: Croydon, Loughborough and Leicester Colleges of Art, UK
Qualifications; BA (Hons), ATD, Cert.Ed (Art), Dip CTI


Awards: 
Fulbright Scholarship to work in USA
Arts Council Grant in Photography UK
Polaroid Grant for experimental image making
Teaching, Lecturing and Workshop Experience
Weymouth College, Head of Dept of Art 1974 to 1978
Open University, Summer School Lecturer in Photography and experimental art 1981
to 1985
SFAI, Seminars with MFA students, 1980
Southampton University, Teachers as Photographers programme 1976 to 1979
Weymouth Teachers Centre, Photography and Teaching, 1975 to 1978
Bournemouth College of Art and Design, Director of Post Grad Studies 1980 to 1997
Study in Siena School, Photography, 1997 to 1999.
Soc Photogaphic Education, Lecture Carmel 1998, ‘Modern British Photography’
Sorgente Centre, Photography workshops 1989 to 1995
San Francisco Art Institute, Lectures and seminars 2000
Tucson Arizona, Creativity workshops for MDA executives 1999
Starstone, Workshops in Creativity 2009, Italy
Tiger Eagles Coaching, Creativity Workshops 2010, France, UK and Italy


Publications:
Creative Camera Magazine UK, interview re Photographers Gallery show
The Photographer UK; interview re Exhibition ‘Moments’
SW Radio UK, interview re London Show at Hayward Gallery
SW Herald newspaper article, Wessex Artist Exhibiton, Bournemouth.
Bristol Herald Newspaper article re exhibition ‘Photographers over the rainbow’
The Computer; Magazine interview re website ‘Physikgarden’
RAI Regional TV; interview re ‘Sorgente’ Art workshops
Southern TV UK, Interview re winning of Benson and Hedges Photo competition
San Francisco Chronicle, article re exhibition and SF Gallery
Seattle Chronicle, article re exhibition at Houston Gallery
New York Times; article re myself as painter living in Le Marche
Perugia Corriere; Article re painting exhibition in Perugia
Room on The Edge; On line interview by Michelle Rumney http://
roomontheedge.com/?s=Michael+Eldridge
Turkish Nat TV; Interview re ‘Trees and Sky’ exhibition in Marmaris
Marmaris Radio; interview re ‘Trees and Sky’


Exhibitions:
Michael's work is held in both private and public collections in Europe, USA, South Africa


1972 The Public Gallery, Ryde, UK: Mostra personale dipinti.
1973 The Sidling Gallery, Dorset UK: Mostra personale dipinti e stampe.
1975 The Wessex Gallery, Southampton: dipinti, Wessex artists. Mostra collettiva
1978 The Russell Coates Gallery, Bournemouth Gallery, Collettiva dipinti,
Contemporary British Artists,
1981 Photographers over the Rainbow, Bristol. Mostra personale fotografica
1982 Photographers Gallery, London: Fotografia 'West Coast States'. Mostra
personale fotografica
1983 La Rochelle Gallery, France 'Made in Britain' Collettiva fotografica
1984 Milan: Fotografia contemporanea internazionale, collettiva
1985 Hastings Gallery, UK: Fotografia, 'Moments'. solo show
1986 Interim Arts , London: fotografia contemporanea, collettiva
1987 Theatre Gallery, Winchester UK, dipinti. solo show.
1988 Cloisters Gallery, Siena Italy, dipinti e scultura. collettiva.
1989 La Brera Gallery, Milan, quadri. solo show
1989-95 Inizia ad organizzare mostre collettive in collaborazione con ballerini,
musicisti, filmmakers e poeti
1989 Poole Gallery, UK, collettiva dipinti
1998 Colle Gallery,Toscana, Italy: Personale dipinti
1999 Insieme con il fotografo Simon Larbalestier, concepisce e crea il sito web "cult
art" Physik Garden, www.physikgarden.com. Sito d'arte on-line e forum dove ne
è il coordinatore e dove scrive e pubblica 'Le Cronache di Spider' oltre alla galleria
virtuale, Glasshouse, dove sono esposte le sue opere pittoriche e fotografiche..
2000 The Physik Garden; una collaborazione e con le foto da Simon Larbalestier, La
Arcos Gallery, San Francisco.
2000 The Physik Garden; una collaborazione e con le foto da Simon Larbalestier, La
Galleria di Houston, Seattle, Stati Uniti d'America. .
2006 Atelier D'arco Amoroso, Ancona, Dipinti, The Red & Blue Art Factory. Una
collaborazione con il pittore Lorenzo Viscidi.
2007 Galleria Bluer, Padova. Dipinti, la collaborazione con Lorenzo Viscidi Red &
Blue Art Factory.
2007 Dipinti, “ Red & Blue Art Factory” con Lorenzo Viscidi,
2008 Donna Irene Ristorante Galleria, Padova
2008 Perugia, one man show; "Dell'aria e dall'aria, del cielo e dal cielo"
2010 Marmaris, Turkey, two man show with Steve Maxwell 'Trees and Sky'
www.treesandsky.me