Michael Haykin :

Art indeed imitates life -- the photographically detailed works of one local painter

BY LALA CORRIERE •

PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS VENEKLASEN • PHOTO ASSISTANT ZACHARY JENSEN •

PRODUCED BY DEBBY LARSEN

Reprinted courtesy of Tucson Lifestyle Home and Garden

Art is color and texture. Art is music and movement. For painter
Michael Haykin, art is air. “It is as if the objects in my work provide
a backdrop against which I am painting the air,” he explains.

Haykin recently moved to Tucson after more than two decades of
living and painting in Key West, Florida. The last straw was enduring
four hurricanes in a single season, one of which brought a storm surge
raging through his home.

He’d never been to Tucson, but upon arriving at Tucson International
Airport, he knew this was to be his home.

His relocation to the Old Pueblo has been championed by no less an
authority than Robert Knight, executive director of the Tucson Museum
of Art. “I’m very excited Michael Haykin has relocated to Tucson and
will be adding his enormous talent to the collective artistic genius of
our region,” he says. “He’s one of the most refreshing and compelling
realist painters working today.”

Six 16 x 16-inch panels comprise “Nopales,” inspired by the desert
surrounding Michael Haykin’s Tucson home.

Because Haykin’s work is fueled by where he lives, Tucsonans can
anticipate seeing his interpretation of the Sonoran Desert in future
work. His muse is Mother Nature, and he never takes Her for granted.
You get the feeling his artist’s eye is always seeing something more
than you see. In the middle of conversation he breaks away and points
out the tiniest gray chameleon sunning on a matching concrete step.
He comments, “That’s good,” and just as quickly devotes his full
attention back to explaining his art.

Knight offers his own explanation. “On the surface Michael’s work
appears to be straight forward and representational, but on closer
examination one finds the painting filled with images drawn from
explorations of the artist’s internal narrative and personal mythology.”

Working with massive multi-paneled canvasses, many as large as 10
feet square, he creates magnified images of miniature places and
spaces. A bird’s nest of four fragile eggs, smooth pebbles in a
streambed, the veined leaves of a red mangrove — Haykin brings
them to life by evoking the passage of time. His technique involves a
laborious process of applying micro-thin layers of pigment to what
would be the defining line between a green saguaro cactus and an
emblazoned Tucson sunset behind it. Tenaciously working that single
line, the result is a blurring quality of space he prefers to call
“shimmering.” This is why his work has been described as both realism
and abstract, and why it has a sense of movement.

It wasn’t always so, but Haykin says he didn’t venture through artistic
phases. He had none of Picasso’s blue period turned rose. Instead, he
believes his work is in constant evolution. His past creations include
portraits under the heading Proof of the Soul, and seriously
scaled-back pieces appropriately titled the Small Room Series.

His father is a retired U.S. Army Colonel. Born in Munich, Germany,
Haykin was the proverbial military brat. At the tender age of six he
began painting. His mother, a registered nurse and also an artist,
nurtured his talent but discouraged him from trying to eke out a living
at it. The family moved to Virginia and Haykin went on to attend the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Intent on becoming a serious
contributor to society, he envisioned a career as a biological and
medical illustrator. But the roaring sound of his calling grew louder.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. His only other early
claim to fame, he’s quick to point out, is that he could out-fish both
his angler brothers without trying.

TOP Four 15” x 15” oil panels make up the piece titled “Philodendron,”

which also was inspired by tropical horticulture.

Living the life his mother warned him to avoid, Haykin tried his luck at
a real day job. He lasted two full days before the axe fell, but this
artist wasn’t about to starve. Soon he had a following of supporters. In
his early days at his New York studio, friends would drop by for a cup
of coffee. They’d depart and Haykin would later find a $20 bill slipped
under their mugs. Those friends became his first collectors, they’ve
today amassed collections of significant value. A decade ago, one of
Haykin’s paintings would fetch between $200 and $500. These days, he
can command six figures.

Haykin’s résumé includes years of one person, two-person, and group
exhibitions. Success becomes the man and he wears it with a gentle
appreciation. Having traveled extensively throughout South America,
Central America and the South Pacific, he is now content to spend
most of his days here in Tucson in an impressive northeast-side home.
But change remains the spark of his inspiration, and success has
afforded Haykin the privilege of one extravagance. He’s able to visit
his second home in a remote region of Montana whenever the spirit
moves him. Tucked away in the Elkhorn Mountains, he built his first
new studio, asking the architect to provide him with a bright white
room in the middle of the forest. Here in Tucson, after studying his
property and getting the lay of his land, Haykin discovered the perfect
sun-entrenched piece of ground where construction will soon begin on
his home studio — in the middle of the desert.

“Swimming Pool,” eight 16” x 16” canvases in oil hang in Michael Haykin’s living room.

The contemporary custom home acts as a backdrop for many of the artist’s recent works.

Now in his 50s, Haykin says he’s embracing his second half of life with
even more gusto. He understands he has a gift. He’s also a savvy
marketing man. Carol Green, a long-time collector and serious player
in the professional art world comments, “Obviously he’s a huge talent.
But he’s also a real role model for artists. He doesn’t hesitate to
promote his work. He does his legwork and doesn’t wait for the phone
to ring. Artists need to know that in this competitive market you can’t
sit around and wait to be discovered. Michael is a macro personality.”

Perhaps that duality has been what has launched him into the
infinitesimal percentage of artists who achieve financial success.

Or is it maybe a combination of discipline and audacious tenacity? With
a sparkling swimming pool beckoning just steps away, Haykin explains
he’s not a floater. Type A’s don’t float. His typical workday, which is
almost every day, begins at 7:30 a.m. He paints until around 1 p.m.,
often throwing lunch into a backpack alongside his constant
companion, a sketchpad.

The scheduled breaks are of physiological importance. Haykin believes
he has actually trained each eye to see differently. With his left eye he
captures the focus he is looking for, the finest of details often
overlooked. The right eye catches that soft edgy quality he is forever
seeking — that area of space we would call a horizon, a silhouette, or
even just a line. This is the space he concentrates on turning into
movement.

Peter Held, Arizona State University Art Museum curator of ceramics,
is a big fan. As the previous director of the Holter Museum of Art in
Montana, Held offered Haykin the successful one-person show entitled
Intimate Terrain. His comments confirm everything a fledgling artist
needs to know about becoming a star in the visual arts arena. “Michael
has a sensibility about any environment he is in. He captures the
essence. He has a distillation process. A narrowing of that small space.
But even more so, he is disciplined. He works hard. He paints and
paints and paints. He sets goals and he meets them.” HG

“Dieffenbachia,” a series of oil panels each 24” x 24”, showcased in his guest casita,

was inspired by Michael’s tropical garden in his previous home in Florida.