Michael E. Vermette

About the Artist

Michael E. Vermette double majored in Painting and Printmaking at the Maine College of Art receiving his B.F.A Painting degree in 1980. He continued his studies in art education at the University of Maine at Orono and received his K-12 Maine Art Certification in art education in 1986. That same year he became the first permanent art teacher at the Native American school on Indian Island, through Maine Indian Education. He currently resides on the Penobscot reservation with his wife, a member of the tribe, and their children. He continues to teach on the reservation as well as in workshops across the state, while maintaining a balance in his studio as a painter. Michael is intrigued with the vibrant and active timelessness in change in the subjects of his paintings. He believes that eternal rightness is captured in his paintings when active humanity engages with the force of nature to become a metaphor of an even deeper truth. Michael says," I want to paint the secret of the Creator's heart hidden within the figure and landscape and fill the whole page or canvas with its greatest moment of profoundness. I feel my accountability as a painter is to guard that initial excitement with the subject and the mysteries hidden within as a valuable spiritual gift of revelation. As a creative seer I strive to paint the subject at it's peak moment of visual excitement, not merely copying how it appears, devoid of spirit. " Michael's paintings show a love of color with emphasis on the expressive painterly mark that evoke a recognizable feeling, a nostalgic memory, or emotional qualities such as the smell of salt and balsam in the air. In his oils, watercolors and pastels he emboldens color by putting into practice traditional formulas of the masters that cause the pigment to be brighter, richer and more translucent. Careful watchfulness, attention to understated materials and detail, descriptive movement, purity of light, and the uniqueness of the atmosphere, are characteristics of his personality. Michael approaches his art honestly and openly as a discipline of structured play that relies on boldness and risk. His desire is to make paintings that take on a life of their own by illustrating a fuller, deeper, and clearer insight of truth and love to man.