Biography

Michael loves all forms of art, from classical styles to the contemporary avant-garde. He’s an award winning artist, committed to his studio and advancing his art and his creativity. He’s a motivational teacher committed to giving each and every student in his classrooms and workshops an appreciation of art and the understanding that everyone is creative deep in their very being. He promotes art on all levels, and is respected by other artists, professional and non-professional alike, for his encouragement and nurturing conversations and critiques. An artist – this is Michael Gault.

By the age of seven Michael had declared to his second grade teacher and his family that he would be an artist when he grew up. While other boys his age were playing baseball, Michael was taking drawing lessons. The desire to create and his appreciation of fine art would crescendo through his childhood and teenage years and into adulthood.

It wasn’t however, until after his stint in the Navy during the Vietnam era that he was finally able to pursue his dream. In 1972, he was accepted by juried process into the renowned Kansas City Art Institute. He began his studies in the Foundations Department, experiencing and experimenting with all phases of art. It wasn’t however until he was almost 23, and preparing for his second year of studies at the Art Institute that he would walk into the painting studio and choose that art as his life’s pursuit.

Studying under the direction of Wilbur Niewald, a childhood prodigy and student of Thomas Hart Benton, Michael mastered his drawing abilities and developed his color and technique. He spent the next three years painting in the studio and expanding his plein air work. By graduation he had exhibited in numerous one-man shows and been accepted by the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri for inclusion in it’s prestigious "30 Miles of Art" show at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

After obtaining his BFA in Painting from KCAI, Michael continued to pursue his studio career and taught regional workshops. He was accepted, in 1978, by the University of Missouri at Kansas City, to continue his education in painting, studying under Professor, Eric Bransby. His thesis in art "The Missouri Landscape Skies and Highways" was accepted in written and studio presentations and he was awarded the Master of Arts Degree in 1980.

Michael started a graphics art business in Missouri in the early 1980’s. The business allowed Michael to utilize his artistic skills and develop skills for a new type of art – computer graphics. He continued to experiment with various phases of fine art, and to paint and exhibit his work. During this period he was chosen by the Missouri State Historical Society as a National Resource in an effort to bring attention to artists in the region. His work was featured in state periodicals along with artist, Thomas Hart Benton and writer, Mark Twain. A one-man show in the state capital featured the Missouri Landscapes that Michael was known for in the region.

The graphics business continued to grow and Michael continued to teach workshops. He became an expert in computer graphics and began teaching design and computer classes at a local college in St. Joseph Missouri. The studio remained his primary interest and he continued to paint. His work was displayed regionally and he began to think about a return to the studio on a full-time basis. A vacation to Colorado ignited the desire Michael had as a child to live in the Rocky Mountains, and in 1996 Michael sold the graphics business and moved his family to the Pikes Peak area.

Throughout his adult life Michael has been drawn to teaching. Colleges, private schools, workshops all offered him opportunities to share art on various levels. He began teaching workshops for oil painters at various art stores in Missouri and has continued to teach all levels of oil painting as well as plein air, drawing, design, and conception. He enthusiastically accepted a three-year position to teach Art and Art History at Graceland College in Lamoni, IA in 1981. In the 1990’s he taught design and computer graphics at Missouri Western College in St. Joseph, Missouri and he has been teaching Art History 100 and 2D Design at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs since 2004.

His landscapes have won awards and he has achieved local recognition. Gault’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous juried shows over the past few years and he is earning a living doing what he loves. He has been a member of the prestigious Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters has exhibited work in the RMPAP Pre-show as well as the Paint the Parks Shows in Estes Park. He was a founding member of the Pikes Peak Plein Air Painters and has taught workshops through various art supply outlets, as well as, Mountain Artists, Artistic Endeavors, Cottonwood Artist School and the Adduce Foundation. He has judged shows for the Mountain Artists, Gilpin Arts Council and the Victor Plein Air Event, and he still gets up and goes to the studio every morning. He does photo excursions and continues to build his slide and digital library. He still packs his easel and equipment and hikes out or four-wheels out into his beloved mountains to do plein air.

Recently Michael has expanded his studio work to include non-representational painting. These studies of paint, light and textures have been well received locally and he looks forward to developing new markets to accommodate this creative endeavor.

His work has been featured in galleries in Idyllwild, CA, Santa Fe, and Taos, NM, and in Colorado in Vail, Denver, Colorado Springs, Aspen, Grand Lake, Estes Park and Steamboat Springs as well as throughout the mid-west. Collectors throughout the United States as well as in France, Germany, Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands own Gault landscapes, stillifes, and non-representational paintings. A five star resort owns almost 200 original Gault oil paintings and has incorporated them into the elegant interior design, an unheard of accomplishment for an artist. Success has not diminished Michael’s creative desires but it defines his life. His daily pursuit of the landscape drives him and the art itself continues to challenge him, thirty-five years after his professional art career began. That he’ll be painting thirty years from now is a certainty. One of the great things about being an artist Michael believes is that there is no one to force retirement on them. Michael intends to take advantage of that facet of the career, and looks forward to painting for the rest of his life, as Michael states " The creative process is an affirmation of the human experience and of life, as long as I live I will create".