Michael Torlen

Torlen exhibited  plein air watercolors and gouaches, painted on Monhegan Island, as well as selected narrative pieces, from Sanger Fra Mor, in a two-person show at Whitney Art Works, in Portland, ME, in July 2008.
 
Two Torlen works on paper, from Sanger Fra Mor, were included in Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, NY from May 11- July 20, 2008.

A Torlen monoprint from the Angry Fisherman series is in the Annual Members’ Exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT from June 12-August 9, 2008.

If you are planning a trip to Cordova Alaska, Torlen’s monoprint, Burning Hope, will be on exhibition in Fish Follies at the Cordova Historical Museum from June 7- September 1, 2008. For the summer months, Torlen’s work can also be seen in the Lupine Gallery on Monhegan Island, ME.

The Longest Journey, a Torlen 2006 monoprint, was purchased for the permanent collection for the Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO, from the national biennial competition Prints USA 2007. 

Torlen's weekend watercolor workshop on the English Method at the Maine College of Art, Continuing Studies program, Portland, ME, was held July 12 & 13, 2008.

Torlen's critique class will begin in the fall, 2008. The sessions are held on fridays September 5, October 3, November 14, December 5. A fifth session will be a Museum or gallery visit, January 30, 2009. The group meets at Miranda Fine Arts in Port Chester, NY. Interested artists should contact mirandafinearts.com.or email Torlen at info@michaeltorlen.com

The poet and art critic, Carl Little, included Torlen's watercolor, Moon over Monhegan Light (from Songs for My Father), 2000, in his book, Paintings of Maine, published by Down East Books, 2006.   

Torlen’s recent monoprint projects are responses to the current crisis of the ocean’s fisheries. The Ocean is Black (TOIB), The Angry Fisherman, and The Boat are each a series of monoprints and monotypes, combining old and new technology in multiple layers—computer editing, digital printing, and traditional printmaking methods. According to one study, commercial fishing will be finished in 2048. The Ocean is Black and the other titles are part of the ongoing visual essay Sanger Fra Mor.

Torlen has been working in Maine, during the summer months, for 25 years—the past 15 years on Monhegan Island. On Monhegan Island he paints watercolors in the open air and develops narrative works evocative of a sense of place. Maine’s commercial fishing, the sea and egalitarian values inspire his work.