Mike Parsons - 1941 - England

In the Field

Hout Bay- Boat Building

Kalk Bay Drydock

Boat in the Mist

MIKE J. PARSONS
Born 1941 - Buckfastleigh, Devon, England

Mike came to South Africa with his parents and older sister in 1950, attending school at Welkom and later in Zambia. Mike became a commercial pilot in 1969 and flew continuously until 1999.

He started painting in 1974, entirely self-taught. Says Mike, \'I Never considered myself a hobbyist - always trying for a better picture. I try to paint each picture differently in an attempt not to get stuck on a subject or style.”

Mike married \'Lettie\' in 1999 and settled in the remote Northern Cape.

Mike Parsons is a serious up-coming artist whose work is steadily growing in importance. Trial and error, though a hard taskmaster, is always the best teacher in art. Every painting is a new project that may take weeks of mental application and careful research on his subject matter.

Mike has never wanted to be tied down to a particular style or technique, but currently his work shows an impressionistic tendency. Landscapes, beach scenes, figures and especially wonderfully executed interiors are themes of
his paintings. Were a painter to come to mind whose style most resembles Mike\'s, it would be fellow Englishman Ken Howard, with the additional influence of John Singer sergeant.

As with all good impressionists, Parsons is particularly admired for his brilliant depiction of light -  beautiful reflections of natural light onto objects, walls and glass surfaces contributing the serenity of his interior paintings.

Working with oil on canvas, Mike sees the need for him to paint continuously in order to perfect his style. For him, the challenge to improve his art is an ongoing process, a journey, with each picture becoming a milestone.