Male nudes selling like hotcakes
Worcester artist Michael Breyette warms up to painting the male figure
by J.A. Lopata
WORCESTER, Mass. — It hasn’t even been a year since Michael
Breyette left his comfortable day job. Now his artwork is
already in his second gallery showing.
His first solo show at Vibes in Worcester was so successful that
they’ve asked him back for the gallery’s first anniversary group
show this month.
And if that’s not enough, he’s had one of his pieces, the one
provocatively entitled “Bottom,” featured in the Tom of Finland
Foundation’s quarterly newsletter.
For someone nervous about leaving a secure 13-year stint with
the U.S. Postal Service, this has been a good year.
Not only was Breyette pursuing a goal of being an artist, but he
was pursuing his hard-earned right to be an artist who focuses
on the object he finds most beautiful — the male nude.
Having grown up in Plattsburgh, N.Y., near the Canadian border,
Breyette’s initial excursions into drawing and painting did not
include nude men. Occasionally, he could justify painting a
hunky man, only if he was highlighting a busty woman in the
tableau.
After years of painting these subjects that he wasn’t terribly
interested in, he finally gave up painting almost altogether.
Then he discovered the Internet. Online, he gradually found an
audience interested in art of the male nude. That interest
warmed Breyette to being more open about his interests. Today,
Breyette has a global following for his romantic and erotic
work, which has been described as a cross between the styles of
Steven Walker and Tom of Finland.
“I like Steven Walker’s stuff,” says Breyette. “It’s more moody
and of a different character [than mine though].” He describes
his own work as more romantic, fun and serene.
Most of Breyette’s figures display a straightforward,
what-you-see-is-what-you-get disposition. One of his latest
pieces, “Elsewhere,” veers in a new direction. Whereas most of
Breyette’s work consists of one character, this work features
two. But more than the quantity, it’s the underlying tension
between the two that marks a contrast from his other works. With
“Elsewhere,” Breyette introduces narrative and an underlying
story to the picture.
Will he continue in this direction? Breyette doesn’t know yet.
His process is organic. Breyette arrives at a general concept
first. For his painting called “Santorini,” for instance, he
started with the thought of “grapes and Greece.” Next, he began
collecting photos and other pictures of men and landscapes and
objects with that idea in mind. He played around with the
images.
Unless Breyette is working on a specified commission, the men in
his paintings are never modeled after actual people. He
frequently merges a “face here” and a “body there,” to create
his attractive male figures. They are “not always perfect
looking,” explains Breyette, “but good looking.”
Only after he has landed on a solid final design does he put
pastel to paper. “I usually try to start with the face, if
there’s a face in it,” he says.
The actual painting part of the process is usually the fastest,
easiest for him. The execution time for “Santorini,” a painting
featuring a beautiful man overlooking the Greek isles (no grapes
in the final rendition), took Breyette only a day.
Breyette works primarily in pastels. Whereas he likes the
results of using oils, he doesn’t like how long it takes for the
oil paintings to dry.
The exhibition at Vibes will feature limited edition signed and
numbered prints. The giclee reproductions are of a more durable
nature than the pastel originals and are more affordable.
Breyette wishes that he could show the originals. But he sells
them too quickly.
For more information on Michael Breyette’s work, connect to
www.studio1088.com.
Photo Credit: Detail from self portrait "Naked" by Michael Breyette.
This piece first appeared in "In Newsweekly: New England's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender newspaper."
September 12, 2004