Pre-eminent figurative sculptor Michael Wilkinson has been creating fabulous acrylic sculptures for two decades and the medium never ceases to challenge him. “Acrylic has held my interest for over 20 years,” he says. “It’s a difficult medium to work in. It takes an engineer to do the work and an artist to create it. The artist in me sees the clear figures; the engineer in me sees the material and the effects I want to make. It’s a wonderful medium and it challenges me.”
Wilkinson’s stunning sculptures blend figurative and abstract forms, which, he says is a wonderful fusion to which acrylic is beautifully suited. “Acrylic is a truly modern material and working with it is like working with no other medium.”
The clarity of acrylic adds a fourth dimension that allows viewers to look into and through the artwork. “Acrylic always surprises,” says Wilkinson. “You don’t see the finished piece until you see the clear sculptures.”
Recognized for their unique beauty and universal appeal, Wilkinson’s sculptures are part of both private and corporate collections worldwide. They’re available locally at Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery in Napa. (
cordair.com)
“Experiencing Wilkinson’s forms encased within clear acrylic has been compared to examining a diamond under a microscope and suddenly discovering a classic Greek sculpture inside,” says gallery founder Quent Cordair. “His faces and the romantic pairings are so breathtakingly stylized and clean that one has the sense of seeing all the way back through the millennia to the very first men and women who fell in love, with all the accidentals and imperfections purified away. His sculptures are really love songs, captured in the purest of visual forms.”
Many of Wilkinson’s pieces show the interaction of couples obviously in love. “The themes come naturally from my values and experience – from romantic love and heroism,” he says. “I have a wonderful marriage with my wife (Mary-Claire) and am influenced by the constant discovery and rediscovery of her qualities and a constant appreciation of her.”
A Northern California native, Wilkinson, 59, was born in Oakland and lived in neighboring San Leandro for 14 years before moving to Pleasanton and Castro Valley. Upon graduation from high school at the height of the VietNam War, he joined the Air Force and was sent to Tokyo where he worked as an illustrator. In Japan, he studied sumi brush painting, Japanese architecture and calligraphy. After his discharge, he attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He wanted to study architecture, but switched to engineering, explaining that learning how buildings went together was more interesting.
He worked for an architect in Carmel and created sculptures at night. “I realized that sculpture was my destiny,” he says. After a trip to Europe where he studied the works of the great masters of ancient Greece and the Renaissance, he moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League and the New York Academy of Art.
He worked first in clay and then bronze. He’d seen acrylic sculpture and was encouraged to work with the medium. “I first found it simply, visually interesting. I learned about reflections, refractions and telling a story about a piece of art. I wanted to be positive. The infusion of light into the work is positive. We associate light with the good and uplifting.”
Wilkinson’s work captures the imagination and curiosity of people who often ask, “How did you do that?” Acrylic sculpture is a process with many steps that include forming clay, then creating a plaster model and making a mold. That is filled with a mixture of liquid monomer and polymer powder, which creates a chemical reaction that results in acrylic. The sculpture then needs to be cured under heat and pressure. Imperfections on the surface are hand finished and corrected by fine sanding and polishing with jeweler’s rouge. A frosted look is created by blasting figures with fine glass powder. Each piece then is signed and numbered.
The challenge in working with clear acrylic is that the original sculpture model is opaque clay or plaster. Says Wilkinson, “While creating the model, I must envision through the plaster what is going on inside the work - the reflections and refractions as they will appear in the final clear artwork. This is the most difficult aspect of my acrylic art, but when I get it right, it is the most satisfying.”
Wilkinson’s sculptures are filled with light and captivate viewers who see a newness and novelty in acrylic. As the lighting changes, so does the appearance and mood of the piece. “Light is associated with spirituality and enhances that part of my work,” says Wilkinson. “As you turn the work, you see different views. Some pieces do not have a front or back, but rotating the piece completes the story.”
Many of those stories portray the love songs captured in pure visual forms described by Cordair who adds, “For an artist to accomplish such a feat not only takes great skill but an extraordinary and rare soul. I’ve been taken with Michael’s work ever since I saw it many years ago in another venue, long before we opened our own gallery here, and now it’s a pleasure and honor having the opportunity to exhibit his art and seeing other people being stopped in their tracks in wonderment, as I once was, upon encountering a Wilkinson for the first time.”
Asked how he would like to be remembered, Wilkinson says he wants to be known as an artist who had meaning and enhanced the lives and homes of collectors. “I like to give artistic expression to people’s lives.”
One collector who owns several of Wilkinson’s acrylics enjoys coming home after work, and instead of watching TV or reading, will illuminate the figures, pour a glass of wine, sit down and look at his collection. “That means a lot to me,” Wilkinson says.
Wilkinson would like to continue to broaden and expand on themes, going deeper in expressing ideas that are important to him. “My real goal is to touch the deepest part of the human spirit – to touch the souls of romantics and scratch the souls of cynics.”
More Information
Quent Cordair Fine Art was established by artist Quent Cordair in 1996 on the San Francisco Peninsula and relocated to downtown Napa last July. As a premier provider of contemporary Romantic Realism in painting, sculpture and drawing, the gallery has grown to serve an international clientele of private and corporate collectors. It features a large collection of uplifting and inspirational art created by more than 24 artists, including Michael Wilkinson. Subject matter includes figurative, narrative, allegorical, still lifes, seascapes and landscapes. Award-winning painters and sculptors of international renown are represented, as well as emerging artists of unique vision and accomplishment.
The gallery, at 1301 First St., is open from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Tuesday with private viewings by appointment. The 3,600-square-foot gallery is available for private and corporate events. Most recently, the gallery hosted Ceja Vineyards’ pick-up party as well as two events for Merrill Lynch.
Gallery owners, Quent and Linda Cordair are enjoying the positive growth that downtown Napa is undergoing. “Our collection of romantic art is a perfect fit with the romance of the wine country. Our art emphasizes life as it can and should be,” says Linda Cordair.
For more information about the gallery or individual artists, visit the website (
cordair.com) or call 707-255-2242.
