Michael's original oil painting, Jekyll Island View was chosen as the cover art for the Spring, 2009 Issue of Palmetto Banker.The magazine, published by the South Carolina Bankers Association, features an article by author Rachel Haynie, who reveals that South Carolina's banks are among the state's most prolific collectors of art. "With brushes and paints, chisels and fire, artists capture that Sense of Place for which South Carolina is celebrated. Banks, wanting customers to sense comfort in their places of business, have sought art to help convey their welcome. The evidence? Original works, in myriad media, adorn lobbies, offices and exterior surrounds. When bank-owned or commissioned art goes on view indoors, it becomes an iconic link, a visual landmark for passerby. When banks afford artists exhibition space, as Carolina First does, artists visibility is boosted. Michael Story said his landscapes were seen recently by Carolina First customers not previously familiar with his work."
Michael's original oil painting, Wetland Respite was chosen by Sandapper magazine to grace the front cover of their historic 40th Anniversary Issue. The South Carolina publication's Winter, 2008 Issue features an in-depth article by author Tom Poland, entitled Michael Story- A Landlocked Painter Rediscovers The Low Country of His Youth. The article explores Michael's early art influences and development to his present-day career as a painter.
“I love exploring the interconnections where land and water meet. Water, real and imagined, exudes a calm that seems magical. Interpretations of clouds, trees, vegetation and grasses often find a place in my paintings, but their reflected colors and shapes in the surrounding waters interest me the most.”
Read the Sandlapper article here.
Lexington Life magazine featured Michael and three other local artists on the cover of the February, 2008 issue spotlighting the fine art community of Lexington, SC. The article included an interview with Michael, along with images from three of his signed and numbered, limited edition reproductions: Coastal River Journey, Lone Egret, and Silhouetted Palms.
" There's lots of trial and error before you get it right. Artistic ability may start with a little talent, but just like acting or musical performance, personal style and technique develops the harder you work at it. It's not always a self-conscious thing, and it doesn't happen in a half hour. But it will happen."
In early 2006, the editor of Arts Across Kentucky magazine contacted Michael about a planned article featuring well-known South Carolina author Pat Conroy. The magazine was searching for art that would complement the author's story and reflect the South Carolina landscape that Conroy grew up in and wrote about. Six previously done paintings by Michael were chosen to represent the article and were reproduced in the Spring, 2006 issue of the magazine.
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In 2002, Tim McKeever, art director for South Carolina Business magazine, came calling with a usage request for front cover art. An interior article spoke on the idea of improving and protecting South Carolina's environment. It outlined a plan to protect our quality of life and maintain that environment in the face of growth. The headline for the cover was to read: "An Environment For Success," so the image needed to reflect that idea. The final painting chosen was Michael's, Sunset over Bluffton.
In the Spring of 2002, Author, Rachel Haynie interviewed Michael for an eight page article in South Carolina Homes and Gardens magazine, highlighting his art. "Long before he picks up a brush, Story begins painting in his minds eye. First, he may walk the stretch of beach that fronts a stand of scrubby Palmettos with an understory of cabbage palms. Or he may take a u-turn and come back across a primitive bridge just to talk to a salty shrimper casting a hand-knotted net into a shimmering creek. He may take photographs and make color notes, creating his own reference material to take back to his studio and ponder, searching for the most visually pleasing design he can evoke from the collected elements. When he addresses the canvas at his easel, Story lavishes hues onto shadows that were there all along, colors that would have gone unnoticed had he not pronounced them. In his paintings he changes the weather's mind and mood with shadings and light."
Read the South Carolina Homes and Gardens article here.
In the March/ April issue of South Carolina Wildlife magazine,
an article written by author, Janna McMahan, entitled "Canvases
of Conscience," documented landscape painting and its importance
in South Carolina. "Today's artists must commemorate and reveal what is
left of our natural heritage. With the battle between wilderness and population
settled in a decided direction, people will always long for a reminder that a
stream can be refreshing, a stretch of beach lonely and pristine, a sunset, heartstopping.
For all our desire to be modern and important, we recognize as a society that
there is eloquence in natural solitude and that simple things hold joy in our
lives. And that a little piece of serenity can be captured by an artist's brush
and remind us of why we care."
Two of Michael's paintings, Shell Island Creek, and Congaree
Autumn were featured in this article. Shell Island
Creek was chosen for the cover art.
Shell Island Creek
Pastel,
23 x 32 in.
"For me, one of the most interesting aspect of the marshes is evident at low tide, as creeks form their twisted shapes of water, meandering through the picture plane. In this painting, I wanted to use the S-shaped curve of the water to guide the viewer from the sandy foreground through the shallow waters of the middle area toward the distant horizon."
Congaree Autumn
Oil,
16 x 20 in.
"Congaree Autumn was an immediate and overwhelming response to this special place on the river. By my intense use of reds, oranges, and yellows, I sought to immerse the viewer in a total spectrum of fall color. The same spot painted in the summer would be a much different journey in color and properties of light."