Welcome to my website!

Here's a brief autobiography:

My name is Michael Ananian. I was born and raised in Haverhill, Massachusetts and spent my high school years in Atkinson, New Hampshire. I got my BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1987 and my MFA from Yale School of Art in 1990. In 1994, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina to teach at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as an assistant professor of painting and drawing. I'm still there, but now I'm a tenured, full professor.

I'm married and have two cats. My wife Dr. Jennifer Keith is a Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and specializes in British Restoration and 18th century poetry. We met there in 2005.

Since 2014, I've been an avid Old Time music enthusiast and player; I play clawhammer and two finger style banjo--hence the "Oil Paintings_Old Time Songs & Stories" section of this website, which marry my loves of art and music.

Here's an overview of my paintings and drawings on this website:

I'm primarily an oil painter but have in the past painted a lot in casein. In 2022 I took a deep dive into digital painting. Since childhood I always drew a lot; drawing binds and abidingly informs all my painting practice.

I'm a narrative painter. The "Oil Paintings_Old Time Songs & Stories" and "Digital Paintings" here on this website are single image narratives. On the other hand, my "Casein Paintings_Narrative Sequences" tell stories using as many as 17 individual paintings/ images arranged--time-ordered--to form a sequential narrative much like a comic strip. (Note: I have arranged these images on this website, reading left to right and top to bottom, the same way I would display them in a gallery or museum show.

Like drawing, portraiture is a leitmotif that threads through my entire oeuvre. I depict actual people in my narrative paintings. However, I address issues of portraiture more directly in stand-alone portraits, both heads and full length. I have an entire website section devoted to my heads in oil. I have full-length charcoal drawings of musicians in the "Oil Paintings_Old Time Songs & Stories" section and have full-length nude portraits in the "Digital Paintings" section. The full-length nudes suggest that the entire body is a portrait.

Being an educator as well as a painter, I cannot help but think that written clarification enriches the visual experience of artwork. So, I put below each artwork image (scroll down a bit from the image to see) some text that explains my ideas for each artwork.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions: mananian@northstate.net