Guest Artist of the Month
Michael McSorley
Showing June 1 - 30, 2023
The Peninsula Gallery's Guest Artist program highlights a different artist each month. The line-up of participants includes our gallery's repeat exhibitors, as well as artists entirely new to the space. Visit the gallery each month to see the guest artist's special collection and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages to learn behind-the-scenes information about their background and creative process.
 “Alley at Night” 20” x 16” image 22” x 18” framed oil $975 |  “Blue Teapot with Spoon” 12” x 16” image 14” x 18” framed oil $875 sold |  “Boundaries” 16” x 24” image 18” x 26” framed oil $1,450 |
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 “Silver Teapot #2” 10” x 8” image 12” x 10” framed oil $295 |  “Shy Teapot” 12” x 12” image 14” x 14” framed oil $595 |  “Shell Station” 9” x 12” image 11” x 14” framed oil $595 |
Michael McSorley started making art at a young age, drawing and sculpting people and animals from his imagination. In high school, he focused on art, taking a 2-period class for seniors. A college class push him into painting, where he concentrated on painting from life: still lifes, landscapes, and figures.
Mike’s work has been shown in regional and national shows and in a handful of solo shows, winning some awards. He has received three Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program Grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (years 2020, 2021, 2022). In 2019, he was accepted as a Torpedo Factory Art Center Eligible Artist. His piece, "Eckington Korner," was acquired for The Washingtonia Collection through the DC Creates! Public Art Program in 2016, and "Along the Patuxent" was acquired by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies in 2022.
He has won two First Place awards at Plein-Air festivals in Berlin, MD (2016) and Falls Church, VA (2017). Mike has an upcoming solo show at The Art League at The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA, June 2023. He has had solo exhibits at The Arts Club of Washington DC (2022), the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD (2021), the Hill Center in Washington, DC (2019); The Art League Gallery in Alexandria (2018); the 43rd Street Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA. (2014) and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA. (2014). He has also shown with a trio at the Brentwood Arts Exchange (2021).
The piece "Possessions" was created for the Westmoreland Museum's Peddling Personalities exhibit. Another piece, "In the Kitchen," was made for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Verse Envisioned: Poems from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the works of art they have inspired. A Fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts occurred in 2015.
Mike recently moved to Milford, Delaware, with his wife.
Method
"I naturally gravitated to oils and tried acrylics but haven’t had much luck. I don’t really experiment much these days, but my method has evolved. My style is different than it was two years ago. I now tend to focus on accurate underdrawing and less on correcting in the later stages.
My subjects became objects I had in my studio and were painted for convenience. During the pandemic, I started painting landscapes and portraits from photos I had. In DC, we were not to be outside at the beginning of the pandemic, so I couldn’t paint landscapes from life or hire a model.
My art has been influenced by formal training. Not from college, but from classes and workshops I took after. I use what is needed, discarding processes and theories that are unimportant or counter to the piece I’m making. The piece gives input on how it wants to be painted and which direction to go in.