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 one cat. My wife Dr. Jennifer Keith is a Professor Emeritus of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and specializes in British Restoration and 18th century poetry. We met there in 2005. My cat's name is Daphnis.

Since 2014, I've been an avid Old Time music enthusiast and player. I play clawhammer and some two finger style banjo. The "Oil Paintings_Old Time Songs & Stories" section of this website marries 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 painted a lot in casein. In 2022-2025 I took a deep dive into digital painting. Since childhood I always drew a lot; drawing binds and informs my paintings. I have a lot of my charcoal drawing of Old Time musicians under the "Oil Paintings_Old Time Songs & Stories" and "Digital Paintings" of this website.

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's in all my artwork. I depict actual people in my narrative paintings. I also paint stand-alone portraits., head and shoulders and full-length. You can see the stand-alone portraits in the "Oil Paintings_Portrait" section of this website.

Being an educator as well as a painter, I cannot help but think that written explanations about my artwork enrich the visual experience. 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@proton.me