September 2024
Mike Hall
For this month, Winnipeg River Arts Council features visual artist, Mike Hall. Born in 1957, he grew up and lived most of his life in Winnipeg. After raising two children and working for more than thirty years as a mental health professional, Hall moved to Pinawa with his partner, shortly after retirement.
This wilderness setting, on the edge of the Canadian Shield, attracted them. As well, they loved the idea of experiencing small town life. They currently split their time between Pinawa and a Lake of the Woods cottage.
In his youth, Hall developed the hobbies of drawing and painting in oils. Also, he attended art lessons at Winnipeg Art Gallery and The Forum Art Institute in Winnipeg. He said, “Perhaps I inherited some artistic inclination from my great grandfather, as he painted a large mural in the
Saskatchewan Legislative Building, and was a concert violinist.”
In adulthood, Hall drifted away from creating art, as family responsibilities and his job in the mental health field did not leave much energy and time for creating art. Since retiring, his drive and interest have returned.
When asked what motivated him over the years to draw and paint, he said, “Artwork provides me with a portal to deeply explore the meanings and associated emotions of living one’s life as a human being.”
The professional experience of listening to and gazing into the eyes of the multitude of people he counselled over the decades has influenced his art. He said, “For example, the meanings and emotions conveyed in peoples’ faces are probably why I love painting portraits. Also, I’ve always felt drawn to the art of masters such as Rembrandt, Van Gough, Manet and Picasso, and their depiction of human experience has greatly affected my work.”
Hall has minimal experience displaying his art publicly, and has only participated in two exhibitions. The first was as a child, when he entered a water colour painting in Winnipeg’s Shrine Circus Poster Contest, and it won second place. In 2024, he submitted a painting to the Eastman Juried Art Exhibition, and it won first place in the oils category.
When describing his renewed love for making art, he said, “Whenever I start a piece, I am never clear where it will take me and how it will look when it is finished. It remains an engrossing experience. I will draw and paint for the rest of my life, because as the case with life, creating art is constant process of discovery.”
