Artist, muralist, painter and lifelong resident of Fenton, now living in Linden. Many Fentonites recognize his murals around town on the bicycle shop, at Companion Animal Hospital, in the Fenton Hotel, and even on local TV news and ABC Extreme Home Makeover!

 

He started painting watercolors in sixth grade art class. Later a Bachelor degree from Western Michigan University with concentration in watercolor. A one man art exhibition followed, and a few years doing Michigan art fairs winning several best in show awards. He even painted highway billboards for three years, then did a natural progression into murals.

 

Mural painting demands strong design skills, accurate color, flawless technical painting skills and restrained expression. He learned how to be extremely versatile early in his career, painting portraits, landscapes, figurative, still lifes all painted in period historical styles. He’s even tried Buon Fresco mural painting, which is the “high art” mural paint technique used in Renaissance Italy by the likes of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Tiepolo. Watercolor was known as the “poor man’s fresco painting” because they share similarities. Fresco is painted into limestone plaster while cheap paper is watercolor’s support.

 

Going from the restraint of murals to doing expressive watercolors can be quite liberating. That is what you see here. Expression in its purest form…a high art!

Gregg Bugala is a current member of Michigan Watercolor Society.