Mike Brewer has lived the majority of his life in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a Major in Studio Art from Old Dominion University. Well-known local artists Charles Sibley, AB Jackson, Faye Zetlin, Vic Picket and Ken Daley were his professors. Currently he is studying under Richard Whitney a classically trained artist and one of the countrys leading portrait artists. Mikes work appeared in the Chrysler Museum and American Drawing Biennial XXIV sponsored by the Smithsonian Museum. One of his paintings is in the collection of Frank Getlein art critic for the Washington Post and author of several books on painting. His portraits include Dr. Edward Brickell, President Of Eastern Virginia Medical School, Howard Bender, Metropolitan Opera Tenor and Leo Wardrup, Delegate To The Virginia House Of Delegates.
Portraiture has always been Mike Brewer's primary focus. He has produced sculpture, silkscreen prints and art based on laser technology, but all along he has been most interested in painting people. From his experience as the president of McCullough, Brewer and Train Advertising he knows that our attention is drawn to ads with pictures of people before we notice ads without people. People are curious and like to look at other people. A painted portrait allows one to openly study another person. Mike likes to think of paintings as super real. The portrait looks as real as a photograph but the subject is enhanced by color, lighting and expression of paint strokes to become more real than real. So much can be learned about an individual by their expression, their posture, their surroundings and the way they dress. A good painting should make us realize that we never really looked at this person carefully before. The portrait should make us want to know more about the person, and make us feel the world is a better place because this person has lived among us.