Since November 2023, Worthing Theatres and Museum’s biennial OPEN exhibition has been showcasing work from artists across Sussex. With a fantastic mix of professional and amateur work the exhibition features over 160 pieces across two galleries located within Worthing Museum.
The exhibition happens to feature work from one of WTM’s own: our new head of Buildings & Sustainability, Michael Harbour. Having interviewed for the role just one week before he submitted his work to the exhibition, it is a great opportunity to celebrate one of our team’s talents outside of their role. We caught up with Michael to talk about his work and the exhibition.
About Michael Harbour
Michael is a self-taught painter who has been honing his natural talent over the last two years. With no formal training, he started out as a painter and calligrapher at the age of 17 “But I couldn’t make enough money!” He said, “So I developed a completely alternative career, which I ended 2-3 years ago in early retirement. One of the promises I made to myself was to use the time to paint properly.” He worked intensely on his practice until joining us at WTM in the Autumn. “But my intention is to carry on somehow,” he added, “I absolutely love doing it.”
Michael has two pieces featured in OPEN 23, entitled Early Thames and Forgotten Place. “I chose these pieces, which are variations on a similar theme, but done in a different way.” he said. Using recycled materials and oils, Michael has created contrasting landscapes that both present dream-like, abstract memories of water. This quality is intentional and driven by his process:
“I nearly always work from a photo, but it’s also informed by lived experience. I’ve lived in Worthing and Richmond, so I’ve been by the sea a lot, and by the Thames nearly every day, so the vision of these places is always there. There’s lots and lots of pictures in my head but to capture something specific I like to take a photograph and then use what’s in my head to embellish the photograph, I suppose… my paintings are more from feeling and experience.”
When asked how he knows a piece is finished he joked, “My wife says I perpetually overdo it!” before adding, “Her liking is to do something a bit more speedy and unfinished, but I like to feel that it’s completely finished. It is difficult to know when to stop and you can overdo it. Maybe a piece is never finished to the artist.”
The Pieces
Early Thames
“This piece is a view of the Thames in Surrey, and it’s looking down one of my favourite passages of the river, from Richmond Bridge down into Ham. I’ve always loved that [view] – it’s along a tow path. So, I decided one day to take a photo and create a vision of what this means to me. It’s supposed to be like a collaboration of the weather and the landscape, and how it all works together, blending into a view.”
Close up images of Early Thames
Early Thames captures a moody yet calm morning along the river. The muddy tones and painterly texture give the impression of the piece being saturated and impacted by the elements. “The texture is always made from a filler as a background, nothing elaborate, which I paint over and it just gives it that extra depth.”
Where possible Michael uses recycled materials in his practice:
“A lot of the paintings I do use recycled materials. So [Early Thames] is actually an old estate agent sign board. I found it in the street – you can see the serrations. And the frame I made myself from scrap wood I found in a skip. Every single piece I make is either salvaged or recycled from somewhere, which gives it an added attraction: something from nothing, you know?… [Forgotten Place] has a recycled frame. Where I used to live, people would clear out loads of good stuff with their rubbish, so I would take the dog out for a walk and be on the lookout for things that seemed like good medium!”
Forgotten Place
“This piece is a little bit more difficult to explain, but in the most simplistic terms it’s like you’re standing in the sea and getting a cross-section of the sky, the sea, and what’s below the surface. Like an underwater camera cutting through. It’s my interpretation of what I would see in the murky depths.”
Forgotten Place evokes the turbulent and dynamic movement of the sea. Thick, impasto textures fly in different directions within one crashing space. It is a visceral expression of the sea that will feel familiar to Worthing locals: “As we know the weather here can often be windy and tempestuous, which I hoped to capture. The sea is equally as turbulent beneath as it is above. The sea is an echo of the weather, and the weather is an echo of the sea, simultaneously. In the middle they combine to meet at the horizon. The horizon is deliberately blended and isn’t flat.”
Close up images of Forgotten Place
Inspirations
When asked about the scenes that Michael paints he stated that all of his pieces either depict Worthing or the Thames in Richmond, places where Michael has lived. Apart from his physical proximity to these watery locations, Michael says it is the nature of water itself that inspires him:
“The thing that I have tried to live up to, for about 20 years now, is the practice of zen. Zen uses water all the time to explain non-duality throughout life. Water being something like 90% of people and the earth and everything else, it is absolutely fundamental to life and how we live. So water is something I always like to use, hence the rivers and the sea, and how that water interacts with the weather and landscapes.”
Michael says he admires the work of lots of renowned artists, but states that Turner is the artist he admires most. Michael says “Some of the pieces I’ve done were based on how he was painting.”
Inspriations: J.M.W. Turner’s Norham Castle, Sunrise, 1845, oil on canvas, Tate Britain
WTM and Open 23
Michael submitted his work to OPEN 23 before he took on his role in the charity, “It was all very coincidental.” He said, “About a week before I submitted these pieces I had my interview here. So they happened at the same time. I think I started the day before the pieces were selected!” He is glad to be part of an exhibition that showcases such wonderful talent from across the county. “There’s lots of really lovely pieces, as everyone can see, and the winners are magnificent. But the one that I like – and it’s probably because it’s similar to my own work – is Sky Blush: Water Rush by Rob Corfield. The colours and textures – it feels like the sea.”
Michael Harbour will be exhibiting 25 other pieces of his work on display and for sale in his exhibition Timeless Tides at Worthing’s Colonnade Gallery, 2nd-7th April. You can find out more about his work on his website, or follow him on social media (Instagram, Twitter)
OPEN 23 is a free exhibition at Worthing Museum and Gallery, open Wednesday – Sunday until April 14th. See Museum opening times for more information.