Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

SGC Panel: Printmaking with Extreme Technology

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Erik Brunvand invited me to join him, Steve Hoskins, and Ed Bateman on a panel during Southern Graphics Council’s Chicago convention  called Printmaking with Extreme Technology. Each of us spoke for approximately 15 minutes. Printmaking with Extreme Technology (Erik Brunvand, Chair with Edward Bateman, Stephen Hoskins, and Mike Lyon) 10-11:30am Friday, March 27 at Columbia […]

“Linda” 77×46 inch pen and ink drawing in spiral

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Today, after 11 days non-stop drawing, I completed a large pen and ink drawing of Linda which sorta ‘marries’ my long interest in tiles and spirals with the squiggly cross-hatched drawings of recent years. I think it’s pretty successful and depicts my angelic wife (who doesn’t much mind my long hours in studio) with a […]

“Annette” 70 x 45 inch watercolor with pen and ink drawing

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I don’t know that I so much completed this drawing today as simply called it ‘done’. Either way, I’m moving on! “Annette” is my mother-in-law and she does NOT appreciate this portrait at all — she thinks it makes her look too old and wrinkly (she’s only eighty-one years old, after all) and just hates […]

Crosby watercolor and ink 90 x 45 inches

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When my “Sarah” drawing was first exhibited at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the founder’s wife appreciated it and invited me to create a similar life-size portrait of her husband, Crosby, a giant of a man and huge patron of the arts.  They loved this portrait and it was later purchased by the museum […]

“Linda” 75 x 45 inch acrylic painting on unprimed canvas

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I’ve been working for a couple of weeks now on a couple of long-term fascinations of mine — painting with a limited palette in a grid, and my wife’s beautiful face ! I suppose this latest endeavor was inspired (in part) by the needlepoint stockings my wife and I are making for a niece and […]

“Jim” Collaboration with Lawrence Lithography Workshop

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“Jim“, 2008, 43.25 x 30 inches, lithograph from seven plates on BFK Tan paper is available for $1,800 from Lawrence Lithography Workshop edition of 26. Collections: Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Springfield Museum of Art, Beach Museum of Art, The Collectors Fund, Consumer Growth Partners At the opening of the Kemper Museum “Backstage Pass” show […]

Self Portrait, painting in acrylic on linen, 60×40 inches

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Today I completed something a little bit ‘different’… Looking back to the velvet paintings displayed at the 5 and dime when I was a kid — maybe they’re still up there today — hula girls, Elvis in all his glory, typical 60’s kitch in stiff opaque color practically glowing out of that black-black velvet… Well, […]

Exhibition: Backstage Pass opened at Kemper Museum

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Last night, Linda and I had a ball at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art here in Kansas City. It was the opening of their new show, Backstage Pass: Collecting Art in Kansas City which runs September 7–November 4, 2007. By pairing artworks from area private collections with examples by the same artists represented in […]