Artist Mike Malm
Photography: Courtesy of Mike Malm
A subliminal nostalgia draws you into Mike Malm’s paintings. Without knowing it, the tension in your shoulders slips away as you gaze at a peaceful scene that echoes another time — a simpler, less hectic, and perhaps more pure period in the past. “I think people long for this,” says Malm, who lives in rural Cache Valley, Utah, which provides him his own quiet place to think and paint.
Often using nature as a backdrop, Malm’s subjects characteristically wear pieces that add to this nostalgic mood: long head scarves, straw hats, draped skirts, or loose shawls. The clothing, and the way it falls over the subjects, is just one more element that allows Malm’s paintbrush to sweep and flow, creating the “lyrical lines” that he searches for in his work: a graceful “S” shape seen in the pose of a young woman, the fluid lines of a stream or hillside, or the sinuous curves in the sleeves of a French peasant’s shirt.
Sitting in his studio, clad in a baseball cap, jeans and an Old Navy T-shirt, Malm looks like the all-American “kid” who got off the time-machine bus a bit early. His paintings — some finished, some not — are gathered around him. One portrays a teen in a red cap and suspenders, fishing. Another one shows a girl in a long red skirt, pinning up her hair.
While the serene and sometimes mysterious effects of Malm’s paintings can be felt from across a room, Malm revels in what you can see mere inches from the canvas — typical of impressionistic work, which is part of his style. “Up close, you see the nuts and bolts of a painting,” explains Malm. He stands face to face with a portrait of an elderly woman which was painted by an artist he admires. He points out the long, fluid strokes, the thick impasto and the scrubbed-on paint. “Now look at just one square inch of this painting. How many colors do you see in that square inch?” His question reveals a truth. What appears dark and somber from a distance is actually a multitude of yellow and purple with specks of red.?
“The color in life is rich, but you have to stop and look at it,” says Malm, who spends hours outdoors studying the colors of nature and the play of light on them. “Even the colors of the human form are full and complex — look at [someone’s] skin color; it is not one color, but many.”
“People relate to the emotion in his paintings, which is caught in the scene, as well as in his use of light,” says Linda Lee, owner of Park City’s Montgomery Lee Fine Art gallery, where Malm’s paintings are shown. “There is serenity about his work that is very comfortable, whether [his subject] is a violinist or a child at play.”
Although Malm hasn’t been a student since earning his MFA from Utah State University 10 years ago, he never stops looking for opportunities to learn as an artist. He opens a book on John Singer Sargent, flipping from one figurative painting to another. “Look at that, every single one of his paintings captures a moment,” admires Malm, pointing out details on each page. “He was able to say so much with so little.”
Malm is thorough in his work. His painting process involves, first, a photo shoot with models, then several trips to sketch the landscape setting, and then at last placing the models into the setting and painting. Malm admits to sometimes reworking a section of a painting over and over again until it feels right, or even hanging it up for a week or months in his own living room, until he is confident that there are no flaws.
“Mike is an artist who feels like he has more to learn every time he drops his paintbrush back into the canister,” says Perry Stuart, who taught Malm as an undergraduate at Southern Utah University. “His ability to capture an instant that humanity is interested in has evolved to a point where he is now one of the best young painters out there. The student has passed the master.”
Ever since Malm was 6 years old and drew a picture of a horse for a class assignment, he was aware there was artistic talent within him. “I always knew I wanted to be an artist, I just didn’t know what that meant,” recalls Malm. Several college professors gave him the confidence to believe in his abilities and pointed out a career path as an artist. As if it were yesterday, Malm can recall the words of his mentor and teacher, Del Parson, when he saw a painting that Malm had entered into a show at age 22: “You can do anything that you want to do, Mike.” Malm’s work is now sold internationally and exhibited in galleries throughout the West.
Another influential “fan” is Malm’s wife, Juanita. As newlyweds, they shared a $300 car, and Juanita worked two jobs while Malm was in school. “She never stopped encouraging me to follow this path and has always believed in me,” says Malm. He agrees there is a leap of faith involved when you choose the life of an artist.
Malm’s religious faith also influences his work, providing him with his own sense of peace. This serenity, as well as a belief that the beauty in nature and people was created by God, allows Malm to feel the “lyricism” in life and then paint it, for us to enjoy.
Peta Owens-Liston is a freelancer who writes magazine articles and marketing communications materials. She is also Time Magazine’s Utah correspondent.
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