Painting for me is quite like organized flailing about.  I generally work with a limited color pallet.  It helps.  It creates a certain order and keeps me from going off the rails into chaos and a visual mess.  My work has structure and composition. It doesn’t necessarily start out that way.  It can be evolutionary during the course of painting.  I make a mark then visually balance it with another mark and keep repeating that until I reach a point where it feels complete.   That’s not to say I don’t go back and work on them further.  I do.  Sometimes days or months or years later.

 Quote, Gerhard Richter: I really don’t have a very particular image in front of my eyes. Rather I would like to obtain in the end a picture which I had not planned at all. Also, this method of working with randomness, chance, sudden inspiration, and destruction lets a particular type of picture emerge but never a predetermined one. 

Michael Pratt,  CV:  2010 - 2021   I’ve continued to be a represented  artist at Sidestreet Arts gallery regularly participating in group shows and personal feature exhibits.

2010 Sidestreet Gallery, one man show, Portland, Or.

2005 Sidestreet Gallery, one man show, Portland, Or.

2002, Atelier31, one man show, Kirkland, Wa.

2001Atelier31, one man show, Kirkland, Wa.Atelier 31,"Birds", group show, Kirkland, Wa.

2000 Blackfish Gallery,"New Work", one man show, Portland, Or.

Atelier31, one man show, Kirkland, Wa

Sitka Annual Art Invitational, group show, World Forestry Center, Portland, Or.

1999 Blackfish Gallery,"Reconfiguring Nature", one man show, Portland, Or. Bushbarn Art Gallery, one man show, Salem, Or.

1998 Maryhill Museum of Art,"Northwest Artists Series,

Blackfish at Maryhill"group show, Goldendale, Wa.

Sitka Annual Art Invitational, group show, World Forestry Center, Portland, Or.

1988 Contemporary Crafts Gallery,"Clay and Canvas", group show, Portland Or.

1981 Lawrence Gallery, one man show, Sheridan, Or.

1978 Salem Art Association, group show, Salem Or.

1977 Panaca Gallery, one man show, Bellevue, Wa.

1976 Skylight Gallery, one man show, Salem, Or.

1975 Keller Gallery, one man show, Salem, Or. 

Contemporary Crafts Gallery, one man show, Portland, Or.

Education:  1974 BFA, Museum Art School, Portland, Or.

Other projects1981-2017, Much of my work during this period has been focused on the design and development of a line of art tile. Together with my wife and partner, Reta Larson, we started the Pratt & Larson Tile Company.