Michael Klein “Hewing faithfully to the Renaissance and French academic traditions, Michael Klein is among the vanguard of contemporary painters working to rekindle classical art. The North Dakota native attended a string of ateliers and workshops in the Midwest before finishing his studies at the Water Street Atelier in New York City in 2005, training his eye on painting still lifes and the figure from life.
Although he devotes most of his attention to floral still lifes these days, Klein is equally proficient at painting portraits. Last year, in fact, he snapped up the grand prize in the Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition for NYC Entrepreneur, in which he captures a friend’s business-driven resolve.
Today Klein lives in Raleigh, NC, where he paints, teaches workshops, and enjoys the robust art community, mild clime, and abundant local flora for inspiration. He also travels with his wife to her hometown in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he maintains a second studio surrounded by similarly lush environs. Both locations suit Klein’s proclivity for examining flowers, fruits, vegetables, and other organic materials through form, light, brushwork, and chromatic harmony.
“You have a range of neutral to high-chroma colors to exhibit your understanding of color,” the artist explains.
“Often, color is exaggerated—there are false harmonies.” Klein, who favors earth-based pigments mixed with oil, strives to portray color truthfully in his work, from bouquets of ivory, violet, and pale-pink garden flowers to a bucolic spread of black raspberries, white roses, and tarnished metal pails on rumpled burlap.”
Kim Agricola – May 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine.

View Michael Klein Paintings
Michael Klein paints with an unusual sensitivity toward nature” something he attributes to growing up in the Midwest. After completing high school, Klein enrolled himself in numerous stringent atelier programs, dictated by the French tradition of painting. Later he left Minnesota and sought out the renowned painter Jacob Collin to help further hone his craft.
Klein places the greatest importance on staying truthful to life and his own experiences, so despite his rigorous classical training and the influence of his accomplished peers, he sees his work developing in a direction that is both unique and representative of his own era.
Michael Klein Website