Michael Anderson started his career designing displays for Famous-Barr, and now he is an architectural illustrator, creating everything from basic sketches to highly finished renderings for clients ranging from museums to wineries to theme parks.
A native of Bartlesville, Okla., Anderson, 62, studied art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Early in his career, he identified architectural illustration as a way in which to commercialize his artistic skills and went on to serve as a graphic designer and illustrator for local firms such as Volz Engineering and Surveying and Anderson and Associates. In 1983, he launched his own illustration studio — Michael Anderson Studio — which is based in Belleville.
His clients cross a broad spectrum of industries and include Six Flags Theme Parks, Anheuser-Busch, Concordia Seminary, Arcturis and Major League Baseball’s 2009 All-Star Game. He has completed sketches for projects at the St. Louis Science Center, the Biltmore Estate Winery, Mount Pleasant Winery, the Seattle Center Space Needle and the Kennedy Space Center, just to name a few.
And in addition to what he describes as his “day job,” Anderson continues to paint. He is a member of the Missouri Plein Air Painters Association, which is a group of artists who paint together in outdoor locations. Currently, a collection of Anderson’s paintings is on display in the lobby of the St. Louis Regional Chamber downtown, including paintings done in locations such as Forest Park, the Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park. It also includes still life paintings that originated as sketches on Anderson’s iPad, something that has become a regular tool in his artistic toolbox.
“Michael is a forward-thinking painter,” said Garry McMichael, owner of Paint St. Louis. “He’s not adverse to new technology. I run into people all the time who just want to paint the way they’ve painted for years. Michael’s style of painting has changed two or three times since I’ve known him. And he’s changed mediums. He was doing watercolor for a long time, then he decided he wanted to do acrylics. Now I see the images he’s creating on his iPad. I think he’s always looking for leading-edge ideas.”
Anderson’s work, including an iPad sketch of Busch Stadium and a sketchbook page drawn at a Saint Louis Symphony rehearsal, were included in a recently published book on urban sketching entitled “Sketch Your World.”
Anderson and his wife, Carla, have two adult children and reside in Belleville.
How would you describe your work?
My day job is as an architectural illustrator, and my work ranges anywhere from very quick, loose, barely-above-stick-level sketches to fully finished presentation renderings. It just depends on the project and what I’ve been asked to do. I’ve done a whole wide variety of things, but probably the niche I fit best in is interiors.
What mediums do you typically work in?
I do a variety of products, and it’s sometimes based on hand drawing, but more and more it’s digital. I have an interactive screen that I can draw right on as well as a graphics tablet. At one point it was all rendered and drawn and painted by hand, but things have changed. I had no training in that technology in school, so what I learned is what I could pick up from watching other artists work. It was a huge change. I used to carry around a suitcase that had magic markers and triangles and all that stuff that I would need if I went to set up some place, but now it’s all technology, so it’s a totally different approach. I still try to make my renderings look like the hand-drawn product, and with these tools you can. I still paint traditionally and still do some hand sketches, and I always feel like even if I’m sketching with an iPad, it’s just like drawing with a pencil. In fact, I pick out the tool that looks like a pencil, so it looks like a sketch with a pencil, and I don’t think my clients sometimes know the difference.
Are there projects you’ve worked on that really stand out for you?
The East Addition for the St. Louis Science Center. That illustration was seen on television and published on so many websites around the world. It received a lot of attention. That was just a great project, and to see my illustration reproduced that often was wonderful.
Did you always plan to pursue a career in the architecture field?
It’s always fascinated me. One time, an art director told me that all artists are frustrated architects, and that resonated with me because it’s really the ultimate art form. Architecture was always interesting to me, especially illustration because I saw that as a commercially viable product that I could be involved in, even though I didn’t really have the training. I was trained as an artist, but I felt I could contribute and make it work.
Where did you start your career?
I started out as a display designer at Famous-Barr. I worked in home furnishing display, where I did one of my first interior illustrations, and the design director took it to New York. I used a pattern from the Waverly fabric company, and they eventually then supplied Famous’ home furnishings department with yards and yards of this fabric, and we covered every window, every end cap with this fabric that the illustration helped them sell. It was a very positive experience very early on in my career and got me going.
I worked then for a civil engineering firm and did graphics for them. It was lots of rezoning hearings and site plans — pretty dry stuff actually but a great training ground. From there I took some continuing education in architectural illustration and enhanced my skills, and that’s when I went on my own, and I’ve been on my own since then.
You studied art as an undergrad?
I actually am trained as an artist and I never really lost my desire to paint and create art. I stopped painting for a few years while my wife and I raised our family and other things took priority, but eventually I knew I would return to it. Even when I wasn’t painting, I would keep a sketch book with me, and that was the way I kept in touch with my skills. Especially when we traveled, I would take some time to do some sketching. I became involved in a thing called urban sketching, where artists try to show the world one drawing at a time. That involves drawing on location out in public and recording what you see. I contribute my sketches to a blog called Urban Sketchers Midwest. I submit both my watercolor sketchbook pages as well as my iPhone, iPad work to that blog.
Do you paint now?
I paint with a group called Missouri Plein Air Painters, and that’s a group that takes their easels and paint brushes and paint to the outdoors, and we paint a lot in local parks.
A little over a year ago, I was one of 15 artists asked to sketch the Symphony in rehearsal, with our paintings to be exhibited at Powell Hall. My painting was right at the front door of the grand foyer when people came in, and it was reproduced in the playbill that evening. I took a picture of it with my iPhone and sent it to my friends and said, ‘From dusty Oklahoma to Powell Hall.’ A few days later, I got a card from my aunt, and she had addressed it to ‘The Dusty Oklahoman.’
Where is your studio?
My studio, which I designed and built myself, is in a separate building from my home. The porch overlooks a pond that my brother Jay, who is also my neighbor, spent three years of his weekends to renovate with his own Bobcat and a used dumptruck. The restoration was based on the principles of saving dead farm ponds as pioneered by Ray Scott, a well known bass fisherman/consultant. All the men in my family, including my brothers, uncles and even my son, can just look at the water and fish jump on their lines. That gene seemingly bypassed me. However, they all got it from my grandmother Rose, who could out fish them all.
Do you have a guilty pleasure?
I do. I love to play Solitaire.
A jury of his peers
Local artists whose work Michael Anderson admires:
Where you can find Michael Anderson
Sketching on the streets of downtown St. Louis as well as painting with the Missouri Plein Air Association in locations such as Forest Park, Tower Grove Park and Castlewood State Park.
His favorite Illinois painting locations include the Great River Road between Alton and Pere Marquette State Park as well as the Weingarten in Belleville.
Or you can find him at his Belleville studio, which has a porch that looks out on a pond (pictured above) that was restored by his brother.
By Angela Mueller – Reporter, St. Louis Business Journal
Jan 31, 2014 Updated Jan 31, 2014, 12:16pm CST