Michael Croman is an abstract painter strongly influenced by training in the 1960’s. In 2001, he retired from regular employment to devote himself full-time to painting. His painting focus shifted to landscape and he adopted a more realistic approach to subject matter – rocks, mountains, rivers, valleys, forests, marshes, and the sea.

At this stage Croman turned more experimental, allowing oils and turpentine to become more active in the painting process. The interaction of these materials with the canvas, a use of cloths as well as brushes, and the free flow of the medium enable Croman to meet a long-standing artistic goal – to paint the natural environment “from the inside out.” He aims to capture the spirit of the place rather than make a visual record. He seeks to capture what at first sight appears to be random, fractal patterns in nature and arrange them to become appreciated as highly organized design elements.

Croman takes pleasure in seeing and painting sky, land, and water in ways that show their interchangeable qualities. The shapes and forms of clouds are often the same as the topography of land or the surface of the sea. Color, light, atmosphere, linear outlines, texture and rhythms enhance our recognition of the similarities and overlap between these three major, life-sustaining elements of our environment.

Croman has exhibited from New York to Olympia, Washington, where he has lived for the past 25 years. His work is represented in over 150 private collections throughout the United States and abroad.