MAGNIFICENT "Wild Dog Group" by Michael Costello - Oil on Canvas 1999

Michael Costello "Wild Dog Group" 1999 

As you can see, this magnificent original oil painting by the well-known and popular South African artist, Michael Costello, is beautifully framed and in excellent condition - as new!

Details:

Michael Costello "Wild Dog Group" 1999

Oil on Canvas

1150mm x 990mm

Gold foil frame 

IMPORTANT: I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO IMMEDIATELY RELIST IF NO PAYMENT OR COMMUNICATION IS RECEIVED WITHIN THREE DAYS OF AUCTION CLOSE. 

See also the fabulous Peter Botha original oil paintings I'm selling:

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/item/Item.jsp?Trade_TradeId=11551145    and   http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/item/Item.jsp?Trade_TradeId=11551530

If you'd like to see the other items I'm selling, please click here: 

 http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/seller/1102621/hsbidder

 About the Artist:

MICHAEL COSTELLO - BORN 1948 - CALA, TRANSKEI

Born in a small Transkei trading town of Cala, Michael spent his first part of his life amongst Ama-Xhosa people. He studied in Grahamstown and East London. He began his career portraying the rural people and their dwellings. He also modeled clay from the river banks making Oxen and human forms. In the early seventies he moved to Johannesburg and worked in woodcuts, wooden engraving and lithography, steel and stone sculpture and large paintings in acrylic and oil. His work then showed the customs, myths and rituals of the Ama-Xhosa and Africa with its formidable mysteries.
 
South Africa was in troubled times and his work of that time clearly conveys the anxiety and darkness of that period. South African artists were at the time forming their own vernacular of artistic expression and his work was at the cutting edge of this moment. Michael also dedicated himself for two years to the craft of handmade cutlery using his sculptural abilities to raise the exacting precision of custom blades to an art form. During this time he had more than twelve one man exhibitions, numerous group exhibitions and large commissions.
 
In the late seventies he left Johannesburg for the Indian Ocean Islands, the Seychelles Archipelago, Mauritius and the Comoros Islands and finally settled on the Wild Coast at Port St. Johns. Here he started working on large colorful canvasses, painting tropical islands with their foliage, fish and birds in vibrant colours. He also carved the exotic woods that washed down the Umzimvubu river into myriads of fish, bird, human and animal forms. During this time he ran a fishing boat and caught the giant copper Steenbras on the edge of the continental shelf.
 
In the late eighties he moved to Plettenberg Bay where he fished for calamari and sculpted the indigenous timbers from the Outeniqua forests. He bought a farm near the mountains and started breeding Arabian horses. These amazingly beautiful animals soon invaded his work along with all the other farm animals roosters, bull terriers and Abyssinian cats.
 
In the mid nineties he then moved back to Johannesburg bought a farm on the Jukskei River and has currently been painting African wild life and is developing his property into a nature reserve.

Michael has been a professional artist for thirty four years. He has integrated his life with his work creative from what he lives. Costello's work covers a long period of time, subject matter and different media. He says of himself : "My life and work are inseparable."