MICHAEL HARTWIG

   Hartwig is an emerging oil painter who has earned quick acclaim for his ethereal and meditative representational works.  His work as an artist was first inspired when doing graduate studies in Rome. Each day walking to the university, he stopped in churches filled with masterpieces by Caravaggio, Raphael, Michelangelo, explored the great archaeological parks where soaring Roman monuments evoked the genius of unnamed architects, and wandered through the narrow streets and alleys where yellow ochre and sienna hued palaces created an ever surprising urban canvas. 

His love affair with Italy awakened a deep urge to find a way to capture the feeling and experience of those places in pigment and canvas. In 2003, with a few brushes some acrylic paint and a fresh canvas, he spent the afternoons of his vacation in Provincetown diving into this new medium of creativity and expression. Over the next four years he experimented with different subjects - landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, and human form, and shifted exclusively to oils. In 2008, he took one of Robert Cardinal's painting workshops in Provincetown. Cardinal is renowned for his dramatic use of late evening and early morning light to create rich contrasts and color. The lessons were invaluable and foundational for bringing Hartwig's work to a new maturity.
   He is an active member of the United South End Artist Association of Boston and has been accepted in juried shows in Boston and Atlanta. Hartwig divides his time between Boston, Cape Cod and the North Fork of Long Island.  In addition to painting, he teaches religion and ethics in Boston and Connecticut, and organizes customized group travel programs to Europe for Illume. He lives with his partner Steve Ridini in Boston.

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