Michael Madden is an artist based in Elora, Ontario.

 

His work is informed by a childhood on Lake Huron, three years lived in the Western Arctic, postgraduate studies in the US, living and working abroad, and life lived in Wellington County during an “in between” time where the landscape continues to be disrupted and re-formed by human interference.

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Having relied upon a pencil for over thirty years as a Set Designer there is a certain consistency that his work is rendered with coloured pencil directly upon wood panel. The wood grain remains visible and integral: the medium remains on the surface of the harder wood fibres, allowing light to “occupy” the “in-between”.

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The focus of his artistic practice remains a celebration of the simplicity and beauty of our rural and natural landscapes, which we often take for granted and which can so easily be irretrievably lost. Untamable cloudscapes predominate within his compositions and look to initiate contemplation of what is at stake and the role our choices and inertia play in the midst of our relentless environmental disruption. These pictures are then memory exercises reminding us of the stewardship with which we have been entrusted.

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Michael has a design degree from TMU (Ryerson), an MA from Yale University and was elected a member of the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) in May 2025..

 

His work has been selected for the Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition, the Insights Juried Art Exhibition, and is found within private collections across Canada and the USA.

 

Please note:

 

All work is rendered with wax based coloured pencils directly upon untreated birch ply wood panels (gallery depth 1 5/8”). In the process of applying the many layers of colour the coloured pencils' wax is burnished to create a natural seal and finish.

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