MICHAEL STEIRNAGLE • NEW PAINTINGS
APRIL 7 - 28, 2023
Artist reception:  Friday, Apr 7, 4 - 7 pm

Usually using the figure as a point of departure, Michael Steirnagle’s “Abstracted Impressionist” paintings are assemblages of lush paint, color and light designed to lead the viewer through a maze of shapes and form sometimes blurring the line between traditional and abstract painting. Subtle story telling is also a part of the mix allowing the viewer to not only become lost in textural “whimsy” but also to participate in the visual narrative.

“I paint people, color, abstract shapes and light. People are initially drawn to a work of art by its shapes, values and colors—not by the subject matter which is secondary. My hope is that the viewer will find pleasure in the arrangement of shapes, colors and textures of the painting as well as in its subject which emerges, disappears and re-emerges throughout the work.”

When he worked as an advertising art director in the ’70s, Michael Steirnagle also began his own graphic design studio, from which he launched an 18-year career as a freelance illustrator. After accepting a teaching job in the '90s at Palomar College in San Marcos, California, Steirnagle's focus became his own paintings in his studio.

CODA exhibition openings take place during Palm Desert’s Art Walk, a self-guided tour of the various art galleries on El Paseo on the first Friday of the month, November through May, from 4 to 7 pm. A wine bar featuring organic wines and other beverages will benefit Animal Samaritans. A percentage of the evening’s art sales will be donated to support Animal Samaritan’s capital campaign for the construction of their new Pet Adoption & Humane Education Center in Thousand Palms.