Gallery

Current exhibition

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'Cavalcade'

 

QUESTION

What have the following in common?

 

Weird landscapes, strange plant forms, Renaissance clowns,

Shakespearean monsters, dramatic three-dimensional dioramas,

very odd sculptures. disturbing collages and unnervingly modern

mythological characters?

 

 

ANSWER

MIKE HEALEY


 


Mike is a writer; stage, radio and TV Director/Produce and Surrealist painter whose work you can see soon, here at The Old Courthouse, Shap

WHEN?


Saturday 18th March - Sunday 16th April


At The Exhibit 'A' Gallery

The Old Courthouse

Shap


Watch this space for weekly updates, background information

and lots of strange pictures

See more of Mike's work at

mikehealey.wixsite.com/gallery


You can also find him on

Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/mikehealey109


CAVALCADE

What is your earliest memory?

 

Mine is of a woman having her leg sawn off

 

I was three at the time. I was later told that it wasa magic trick but I am still not sure, even now, that I believe that

 

A few years later, on family holidays in Weymouth, Idiscovered arcades full of wonderfully dramatic, moving dioramas



A few years later, on family holidays in Weymouth, Idiscovered arcades full of wonderfully dramatic, moving dioramas

 


I decided there and then - at the age of seven - thatI was

going to create such worlds and so (some years later!)I found myself

Associate Director of the Oxford Playhouse


Judi Dench and Ian McKellan in 'The Promise'  at

The Oxford Playhouse'.

 

My professional debut as a stage director in 1969 was when I redirected Frank Hauser's original production of this play for the Fortune Theatre in London's West End

At the Oxford Playhouse I directed Judi    Dench, Leonard Rossiter ('Rising Damp'), Ian McShane ('Lovejoy'), Leo McKern ('Rumpole of the Bailey'). a very young Ian McKellan - and many other wonderful actors

Mike Healey's setting for William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'

Oh yes, and I also designed my own sets and costumes.

What is more, I am still at it!

CONTINUE YOUR JOURNEY

Mike in his studio in Carcassonne, SW France

 BEATRIX POTTER

Here in the UK, my television work has included various projects that have taken me to the Lake District, including a drama-documentary I wrote and directed about the early life of Beatrix Potter

 

 

The part of Beatrix was played by Helena Bonham Carter and featured Potter's early interest in mycology


 

MIKE HEALEY

Although I began my professional career in the theatre, much of my media work has been in television - primarily with the BBC in Manchester and Glasgow and also in America with Transworld Sport

 

My American sports series call Sportraits was seen across the globe and had weekly viewing figures in excess of 60 million

Helena Bonham Carter as  young Beatrix Potter

During my research for this project I examined books that Beatrix had once owned, now held at The Armitt Museum in Ambleside

 

In one book I found a pressed flower that Beatrix herself must have placed there. It was a special; moment for me.

 

I carefully put the flower back between the book's pages

 and told no one of what I have found. Some things are best left untouched.

At this time of the year our country hedges are largely without leaves, revealing their complex, inner structures

 

Below is a photograph I took last week on the outskirts of Kendal.


In my painting I often try to capture the complexity of these natural forms, although it will inevitably involve a measure of abstraction

Although CAVALCADE will primarily explore my fascination with theatre,

plants form an integral part of my particular brand of Surrealism

Golden Plant - Mike Healey

Although they may appear strange, these images (acrylic on canvas) are

firmly rooted (pun intended!) in natural forms

Sometimes, these natural forms spill over into the representation of humans - such as this 'clown' whom you will meet (I hope) in my

forthcoming exhibition:

And NO! It is not a self-portrait!