Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

“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 […]

43 x 27 inch acrylic on BFK painting (self portrait improved)

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This painting in acrylics on BFK paper went through several states and many weeks before arriving at an acceptable result.  Here’s the final state of the painting: BFK is a very soft paper — because the tip of the flow-pen actually touches the surface, the paper becomes abraded (deeply abraded) as the tip repeatedly passes […]