Artist Michael Taylor's portrait of saxophonist Andy Sheppard
MICHAEL TAYLOR is a figurative painter who has been producing his carefully and thoughtfully composed oil
paintings more or less without a break for 27 years.
While the majority of his output is non-commissioned
work, portraits have always been an important element
which when undertaken are given the same attention and commitment as the rest of his paintings.
His portrait of Andy Sheppard - done in the saxophonist's Bristol studio - was commissioned by Holburne Museum in Bath following a prize-winning brief to paint someone who had made a significant contribution to the cultural scene in the south west area. Having always enjoyed and responded to Sheppard's work, Taylor suggested him to the director of the Holburne Museum and the painting was commissioned.
Michael Taylor's chosen way of working inevitably leads to a certain complexity of content that only reveals itself with time and familiarity. As painter and art critic Mary Rose Beaumont wrote in the catalogue introduction to Taylor's first one-man exhibition at the Beaux Arts gallery: 'Because he works slowly and concentratedly on a single picture at a time, the paintings mark the passage of time within themselves and are a record of the infinitesimal changes in the artist himself who is, as are we all, subject to change and decay. Moreover, the paintings do not record what is seen, but also what might be seen with the inner eye. They represent thoughts and feelings that are not visible....'