Since graduating from the Royal Collect of Art,

where he was inextricably linked with the tail

end of pop art and abstract expressionism,

there has been a continuing enrichment

process and shows in London, New York and Spain.  Although abstraction underpins all great works, it is refreshing to see him return to the core of advice offered by tutors Peter Blake and David Tindle: never to let go of your natural ability to describe the observed world.   This exhibition unquestionably represents a total immersion, an absolute commitment to searching out observed truths. 

Looking at the paintings, the suspension of the central image in his oils  emphasizes the object, rather than the subject -  of flowers and plants.  Most definitely they are not botanical illustrations, though they are, of course, observational, but seen also with the inner eye.   

Scale is life size or slightly bigger, which conforms to psychological space rather than optical perspective, a view he shares with David Hockney.   He is acutely aware that all truth is a lie, artistically speaking, there being a built in deception in painting, the success of which depends on how good you are at lying.  MH tells some remarkably good visual lies. The containment and dynamic placement of the plants within marginal buffer zones, frequently bisected with horizontal lines, creates a frame within a frame, a mesmerizing illusionist space of colour fields, almost turning the painting inside out. 

 Surface quality of the oil paintings is always highly charged; at once tight as a drum while softened with looser mark making.  Surface luminosity and colour combinations are achieved through subtle glazing techniques. 

Mike has set himself an exacting challenge.   To transform what could be regarded as a corny subject in modernist terms, into true works of art.  Ironically he finds the more loaded the subject and circumstances the better.  His flowers and plants are usually celebratory gifts  ‘There is always a hook, some emotive entanglement underlining each one of these subjects.’  ‘Birthday Daffs’  developed into a symbolic struggle of dark and light;  the scale of ‘Baby’s Breath’ or ‘Tulips’ - a backhanded gift  ‘...these are past their sell by date, you won’t be able to work with these’.   Cut flowers, suspension, opening of container, transparency or density - all have metaphoric connotations.  ‘Brain surgery’ is how MH describes the juggling act of this creative processes which make the still, meditative calm of finished work all the more remarkable. 

I went to see Mike in his spacious studio in the heart of Todmorden where he has re-located since living in Pembrokeshire, returning to his Northern routes.  I remarked on two charcoal drawings which show him to be a consummate draftsman. Drawing is drawing, as valid an art form as painting is painting.  He  recalled that these two ‘Ransom Drawings’ are in fact the seeds of this corpus of works, and marked a sea change in his artistic language.  It was all thanks to an 8 year old girl, who was visiting with her parents at his smallholding in the Preseli hills.   While Mike was wrestling with his years of artistic baggage, she come in the studio and held out a bunch of wild garlic which she had picked on our walk in the Gwaun Valley saying ‘Would you draw these for me, my Dad says you’re an artist?’  Mike ‘lectured’ her about working from higher realms, from the imagination, from the conceptual. She walked out half way through a sentence, returning with a small vase brimming with water, placing them by the window she said dismissively ‘Just draw them’ and walked out. Not until his nemesis had left did he have the courage to take down his old easel which hadn’t been used for some 35 years, and set about the process of drawing from observation.  

 It proved to be a titanic struggle of 2 days pacing the studio floor before overcoming self imposed denial of his true voice, before even making a mark. 

With the success of his first delicate ‘Ransom’, more drawings followed with much hard looking and seeing, much taking out and rebuilding. This dynamic process is echoed in his works with oils.  Also came a realization that he had closed off not only from his own early natural talent, but closed off from the nurturing powers of nature and the healing life of plants.  The last drawing in this series ‘King Ransom’ is confident and strident with smoldering blacks, emphasizing the spiritual light emanating from the opening buds.  

Born Blackburn, Lancashire he went to Blackburn School of Art, followed by three years at Walthamstow College of Art and postgraduate studies at Royal College of Art London 1972-76.  He has exhibited in Britain and internationally, and spent time working in studios in New York, Rome, Barcelona and France.