Biography
Me, Michael ("Mig") Puya, I come from an Austrian family which is rich in local tradition of the south of Austria/Carinthia. Familiar Origin
Born 1958 in Klagenfurt/South of Austria, a city (near the border of Italy and Slovenia) with a musical, artistic and sporty tradition, I've studied art (art/history of art etc.), philosophy and ethnology in Austria and abroad (Dr. h.c.).
During numerous stays abroad (Spain, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Great Britain, Asia...) I felt soon the need of an intense employment of (abstract) drawing and painting.
The journeys in far countries, the meeting connected with other cultures, have become an important signification for my spiritual and emotional advancement like the painting itself!
My father's family occupies itself since generations of the art and decoration painting as well as the restoration true to style of historic buildings.
My father's grandfather, born in a village in Carinthia/South of Austria, already occupied about 1896 several students of art and painters from Italy in certain painting techniques to instruct. He had a painter's deal in Klagenfurt/South of Austria, my home city, but he was also a local well-known landscape painter and found big artistic acknowledgment in Austria.
(My grandfather was already was a painter and restorer as well as my father.)
On mother's side I come from the Viennese family with roots in Bingen on the Rhine/Germany, which had let itself down after the 2nd world-war first in Trieste/Italy, afterwards in Klagenfurt/South of Austria.
My Life
My strong relation existing since earliest infancy to the nature was promoted on the part of my mother's parents, a business family, well known in Klagenfurt and Vienna. They gave me the possibility for longer study trips and numerous time travelling to countries far away but also nearby Austria, especially to Croatia. I love our old house in Medulin very much, in which my uncle had already often invited many painters to stay there for holidays, to paint and make exhibitions...At the age of 21 years Hamburg/Germany was my first own domicile. Here intense employment of the painting. Then there followed Berlin, Munich, Tutzing (at Lake of Starnberg/near Munich) and Vienna. Aim of that I made studies in art.
Finally I must say that the intense relation to the nature always gives the impact to travel....
My guestbook at absolutearts.com shows international entries. It was signed by artists and private persons: Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania, the USA, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica...around only unites to name.
2001: some of my artworks have been selected by an investigation institute for arts (FIBK) in Germany. The jury of the art competition awarded eight paintings a prize to "Magna Cum Laude".
2004-2005: Associate Member of The National Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Brazil: Participation at the "International Art Competition NAFA 2004".
My Art
My style is my liberty, my liberty my style, everything is me. I don't want a rigid style in my painting. It would mean me tightness and this for me obligation.
Creating my paintings I obtain impulses and search suggestions the daily patterns to leave. The reality is not created photographically exactly to show, it rather one view level, on which accurate details are smeared and represented dreamy or meditative illusorily. In other pictures details are however accurately represented. Feelings and soul statuses as for example emotional conflicts, primitive impulses or unconscious impulses, are determined ruler and reflect thus their own thoughts and feeling machinery. Tendencies and feelings are represented in a creative arrangement and create new symbols. Forms are resolved by means of different colours, colour levels and graphic items. The canvas represents a spectrum for me, in which lines cross, break and step to each other into relationship, whereby in between-stepping light fascinates. The colours flow partly freely, partly them into an apparently given direction are restrained, even if it may come to meetings on the image plane. Most of my paintings are made with textured surfaces formed by mixing sand and other natural materials....
BIO in spanish: Yo, Michael ("Mig") PUYA, vengo de una familia austriaca rica en la tradicion local del sur de Austria/Carinthia. Soy la cuarta generacion de pintores en la familia de mi padre. Naci en 1958 en Klagenfurt, una ciudad al sur de Austria cerca de la frontera con Italia y Slovenia. En cuanto a mi arte "Mi estilo es mi libertad, mi libertad es mi estilo, y todo soy yo. No quiero un estilo rigido en mis pinturas. Esto significaria para mi presion y obligacion!" La mayoria de mis pinturas estan hechas con superficies texturadas formadas por distintos tipos de arenas y otros materiales naturales....
BIO in german: M. Puya, geboren 1958 in Klagenfurt/Österreich. 1978 Matura (Abitur), anschliessend Studium der Kunst/Kunstgeschichte, Philosophie und Ethnologie (Fachbereichskombination).
M. Puya stammt väterlicherseits aus einer traditionsreichen Kärntner Familie, die sich seit Generationen der Kunst- und Dekorationsmalerei sowie der stilechten Restaurierung von historischen Bauwerken widmet. Sein Vater und Grossvater waren Maler. Bereits der Urgrossvater Simon P., "der Ältere", geboren in Gassing bei Obermühlbach in Kärnten/Österreich, beschäftigte um 1896 etliche Dekorationsmaler aus Italien um sie in bestimmten Maltechniken zu unterweisen. Er führte in Klagenfurt ein Malergeschäft, war aber auch Landschaftsmaler und fand in Graz grosse künstlerische Anerkennung.
Mütterlicherseits kommt M. Puya aus einer Wiener Geschäftsfamilie mit Wurzeln in Deutschland (Bingen am Rhein), die sich nach dem Krieg zuerst in Triest/Italien, danach in Klagenfurt niedergelassen hatte.
Der seit frühester Kindheit vorhandene intensive Bezug zur Natur wurde seitens seiner Eltern und Verwandten sehr gefördert. Es folgten längere Studienaufenthalte, z.B. eine mehrjährige naturheilkundliche Ausbildung in Deutschland (mit Praktikum in Rostock), sowie zahlreiche Studien- und Malreisen ins nahe und ferne Ausland. Mit 21 Jahren war Hamburg der erste eigene Wohnsitz. Hier intensive Beschäftigung mit der Malerei. Es folgte unter anderem länger Aufenthalte Berlin, München und Tutzing am Starnberger See.
Im Sommer 2001 wurde M. Puya unter vielen anderen Teilnehmern beim Internationalen Kunstwettbewerb in Deutschland, veranstaltet vom Forschungsinstitut der Bildenden Künste, Schloss Trebitz an der Elbe, erstmals ausgezeichnet. Acht seiner eingereichten Arbeiten erzielten ein "Magna Cum Lauda".
2003: Teilnahme mit Zeichnungen an den jährlichen Versteigerungen in Las Vegas, USA - zugunsten der Pro Bono Foundation/Vereinigung der Richter und Rechtsanwälte von Nevada County.
2004-2005: Associate Member der "Academia Nacional De Artes Plasticas" (NAFA), Brasilien.