Michaela Hoppe

“My entire life has been a constant hunt for beauty. Growing up I was always drawn to the romantic, the whimsical, and the small hidden places that tell secrets and stories left by people long gone. What inspires each piece I paint can be different from moment to moment. It can be the light, the colour, or the line of any given subject. Sometimes it’s the honest moment shared by two people that tell a story about their relationship. I love finding someone enjoying a moment of peace, capturing it on camera, then trying to communicate that same feeling of peace through paint.

Art has been a constant in my life. The struggle to build my skill is endlessly satisfying, the relationships I have built through art have been incredibly meaningful to me. Art was that thing that I was really good at that made me feel better when I was terrible at sports. It is how I express myself and how I have found a place where I fit in the world.

My methods have evolved over the years but they always start with a feeling or mood and a photo I have taken either in my own back yard or while travelling abroad. I choose the medium I will paint with specifically to suit the needs of the story or emotion I am sharing. The combination of figure and environment creates a narrative that speaks to everyone differently. I feel that adding a human element into my work helps the viewer become a participant, to step into the canvas and interact with the work on an intimate level.

What it comes down to is….I paint pictures that I like.”