All too often, paintings are only visual. . . Michelle Hinz takes a different route by making hers as tactile as possible. Her textured acrylic paintings pop with so much depth and texture that they’ve even been confused with pottery!
Michelle looks for “textures created by ordinary objects” and uses them extensively. Her goal is to connect to the viewer by encouraging them to touch the canvas.
Each of Michelle’s paintings is comprised of five to seven layers of acrylic paint which often exceed 1/4“ in depth. Her paint is hand-mixed and applied with palette knives, brushes, and found objects to create a variety of mechanical and organic textures.
Additionally, the final coat of each painting is a high-gloss “finger-friendly” protective finish, making her paintings touchable and fun to experience.
This next painting you’ll see is actually a triptych, and is appropriately entitled Charming Moments. Each of the different sections has a delightful warm glow, simple shapes, and a strong texture of leaves, water, or other organic forms.
While most of Michelle’s paintings are composed in a grid pattern (influenced by her background as a graphic designer) she also experiments with landscapes.
The image below is one of my favorites. . . its overall composition is rather simple, and split in half between ground and sky. The horizon line anchors a group of tactile, rectangular “buildings” which successfully draw in your eyes as well as your fingers.
Please take a moment to visit Michelle’s website to experience more of her amazing, tactile paintings. And while you’re there, I’d also encourage you to learn about her unique texture painting workshops.