McHugh's paintings are acrylic on canvas, and often quite large: some of his works are two by two metres. That said, among the key elements of his style is small, acute detail: dots, lines and patterns that draw the eye to their painstaking, almost hypnotising precision.

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These dazzlingly colourful paintings might initially seem like figurative depictions of plants. And that is true to an extent, but McHugh's rather psychedelic on botanical art has yielded "imagined" flora rather than anything "real" - hence the exhibition title, The Accidental Garden. From McHugh's imagination (and research), spectacular new plant species emerge.​​

McHugh believes constant drawing and collaging to be fundamental to his painting process. This foundation enables him to fully explore composition and vigorously push boundaries with colour, pattern and technique.​ We discuss his initial lack of confidence in his own art and how the passing of his beloved mother became a catalyst for developing his art practice further. He shares the story of his first opportunity to show his work and how to his surprise the show sold out within 20 minutes. This marked the beginning of his very successful career as an artist.

Michael McHugh draws and creates a series of collages which lead to large format paintings. For Above the Canopy, he has created a large-scale painting Swimming in the Clouds (2022) which asks what new hybrid organic forms will evolve from climate change, when plant forms are washed away and land is engulfed by saltwater intrusion that includes complex sea life microcosms.

Artist Michael McHugh talks with Maria Stoljar about his spectacular show 'Exotics' at Martin Browne Contemporary in September 2020. Brimming with optimism, the paintings are just what the doctor ordered in these COVID times and Michael talks about the origins of the show and his process. 

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Thousands of tiny dots cover the surface of Michael McHugh’s artworks, along with straight lines, concentric circles, starbursts, metallic accents and tentacles. The paintings buzz with life and give the impression of growing in front of your eyes, or of a microscopic view of plant cells. These images do not come from nature, they come from the artist’s imagination.

McHugh’s art practice investigates colour, composition and textural abstract form. To create his large-format paintings, McHugh draws upon photographs and drawings collected during research trips to museums, libraries and gardens around the world.

With his research material at hand, McHugh returns to his studio where constant drawing is fundamental to his painting process, allowing him to fully explore composition and vigorously push boundaries with colour and technique, while also creating new organic forms.

As though peering through a microscope, Michael Mchugh’s paintings reveal an abstracted view of intricate scenes from nature. Interested in plant forms, it’s the intense detail that is replicated — cellular formations and vivid patterns. However, each work is entirely his own creation, from the dazzling colours to shapes that engage one another from canvas to canvas.

Walking into Michael McHugh’s art studio is like walking into a riot of colour. Exotics, his first solo show for Martin Browne Contemporary art gallery in Sydney, is a celebration of plant forms – some that no longer exist and others that may hold a nucleus from DNA found centuries ago. The shapes are highly manipulated in bursts of colour, inviting the viewer to take part in this kaleidoscope where they can decide themselves if these plants actually do exist or are part of his imagination.

For Sydney-based, Auckland-born artist Michael McHugh his colourful paintings are informed by the reordering of plant form DNA; he undertakes extensive research in the field before following with experimental drawings and collage. Here is where the imagination kicks in, the artist commenting that, though there are certain structures audiences may recognise, there will always be a twist. There’s an artistic interpretation of the research material.

In the pursuit of new organic structures and forms through creative research, artist Michael McHugh has turned his art studio into a living laboratory, where, with daily drawing and experiments with different paint techniques and materials, he has created his very own DNA structures and forms.

Sydney’s re-entry into lockdown earlier this year meant quiet self-contemplation for the artist, and an opportunity to create work from his imagination that celebrated the beauty of nature. Hence the name of his latest show, SUPERNATURAL. The work itself is about the cellular formation of plant forms and the re-ordering and twisting of DNA, while creating layers of patterns and colour. At times, some shapes clash with others completely unnaturally, while other plant forms offer moments of stillness within the canvas.

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