Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

Chandler – 84 x 45 inches pen and ink drawing

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Chandler is an old high school friend of my children.  Last year I ran into Chandler and was struck by his great head and asked if he’d model for a portrait.  He agreed and I phoned and emailed him more than once or twice in an effort to schedule him into my studio.  He never […]

Rousseau – 75 x 45 inch pen and ink drawing

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Our good friends Ed and DJ  were having dinner with us at a nice Westport restaurant and Rousseau served us (she later recalled that we were a ‘good’ table).  She was so pleasant and with such a mobile expression and well defined features and that wonderful tuxedo-esqu blouse…  I wanted to use her for a […]

Michael – 74 x 44 inches large pen and ink drawing

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October, 2009, Michael Rees was one of 15 artists invited to Kansas City by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for their 15th Anniversary Celebration.

Michael is a great guy, established artist, extroverted, outspoken, and a bit larger than life. We’d made a date for him to visit my studio and shoot sources for a portrait while he was here, and I thoroughly enjoyed him! After the shoot I went to a huge breakfast with Michael, his wife Mary Ann Strandell, and Chris Brown (another guest artist in town for the event) at YJ’s, the cozy cafe next door to Birdies (Peregrine Honig’s lingerie shop)… What a great morning — I don’t get out much — this was so VERY stimulating!!!

16 Views of Peregrine Bunny 128 inch pen and ink drawing

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An unusual edition of three original pen and ink drawings plus two proofs — drawing began in late April and finished up in late May.  Can drawings be prints? These are not at all printerly, but there ARE three identical (in the sense of an edition of prints) original drawings, each one measuring 18 x […]

Topper 79 x 38 inches large pen and ink drawing

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Linda (the model’s spouse) phoned me last summer to say that she and her husband LOVED my drawing of “Arthur” which they’d first seen at the Kemper Museum’s Backstage Pass show, and again later at Arthur’s home.  She wanted to give her husband, Topper, a portrait (of him) for his birthday.  I thought Christmas might […]

‘Joanne’ painting 35×21 inches on tinted paper

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Today I completed this (little bit scary) portrait of my Mom (Joanne) painting in white and black Golden Liquid Acrylics over paper tinted blue-gray using dilute sumi and prussian blue applied to the paper by wiping with a sponge. This and the previous painting of ‘Lee’ completed a few days ago are experiments in the […]

Jessica Paper Doll

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Late last year, the Beach Museum of Art commissioned me to produce an edition of 30 prints in connection with the exhibition of my work there (which opened April 14, 2009). The prints were to be no larger than 10×15 inches and ‘suitable for family viewing.’ Bill North and I had some interesting discussions about […]

“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 […]