To Take A Page: An Interview with Michael Cain

Having studied graphic design and clear-cutting his way up the creative ranks, Michael Cain is recognizing the potential in his talent. His skill is clear, his works affordable and subject matter delightful.

Here’s that guy who has the initiative to turn a hobby into a small and profitable business. He’s that friend who is charming, proactive, fit, positive, handsome and married to someone spectacular. His name is Michael Cain.

Having studied graphic design and clear-cutting his way up the creative ranks, Cain is recognizing the potential in his talent. His skill is clear, his works affordable and subject matter delightful. He only paints animals.

His paintings are a realized, orchestrated frenzy of delicate brushwork, layered with geometric detailing and executed with stunning precision. There is an peculiarity in his subjects, beast of bird, and part of that comes from the process of “trying to capture the character of the animal”, painting in a way where “the animal is meeting the gaze of the viewer” and confronting us in that way that animals do that makes you think you think you’re Dr. Dolittle. “I have an affinity with them. I’m just fascinated by them – their detailing, their coats and their feathers”.

Part of every creative’s evolution is the phases along the way and Cain’s creative portfolio is one that captures the journey to find a permanent style. He’s a transient artist and whilst believes that “you’re always trying to find the ideal”, enjoys “the experimentation and process. I enjoy doing that more than when it’s finished”. His development is one where the various stages and pit stops along the way are defining. “Finding little things is where it feels good”.

Further affecting a restless style is his medium. Cain works predominantly on paper, because “on paper, you are more likely to experiment”. Because of this fleetingness, Cain refrains from exhibiting, knowing that by the time it comes to exhibit, his enthusiasm for the earlier work may have expired. And at this stage there’s no huge reason to exhibit, because there are a steadily growing number of followers and commisionees who detract from that approach to an artistic career.

Experimentation to Cain is clearly important. In a semi-creative profession his “day job is compromised, you have to please the client and do good work. My art is just mine. I like the idea of starting something and not knowing where it’s going to end up”.

He is by all accounts a smart artist, pleasing those of us whose lives are in a similar state of transience, moving between houses or states and relationships, but wanting to hang something on the wall to claim territory – even if that is only until you move again, to leave your box of keepsakes in your parent’s garage.

To add to his practicality his works are small, and although preferring to work on larger canvases, Cain tends to work on a small scale. “I enjoy the smaller ones from a postage point of view. The reason I don’t paint as big as I would like to is because of space”.

What is refreshing about Cain’s work is that it is utterly refreshing and void of the pretense that can be encountered in gallery spaces and awkward opening evenings, where we float around umming and ahhing, affording nothing and taking advantage of the bar.

Balanced with this common approach is the view that “no one wants to be the cheap guy”, and his expertise will ensure he is never demoted to this. Whilst Cain’s works are affordable for those of us who spend our disposable income selfishly, they are unique and considered. The reason for their affordability is that he simply doesn’t “see the value in being super expensive. I’d rather it was on somebodies wall and not in a folder”.

Cain is an artist in transit, on a journey and allowing folks like us to play a part in that. That is until he realizes he can be selling his works for twice the price.