The Art of Living: Michael McGrady Is an Artist, Actor, and So Much More ... and He’s Coming to Ocean Galleries
“I’ve been an artist pretty much since I can remember,” says Michael McGrady. “Even as a child I was always drawing dinosaurs, race cars, things like that. It’s just something that was in me.”
Growing into adulthood, McGrady expanded his artistic repertoire as a sculptor and a muralist. These days, he creates primal, evocative seascapes with a paint knife — not a brush — in hand.
“I had seen a PBS special about an older gentleman who painted a beautiful painting with a painting knife,’” recalls McGrady. “With just a few strokes and bits and pieces of paint, he was able to suggest things. Not paint them outright and define them for you, but sort of let you fill in the blanks. I thought the way he painted really drew you in to participate with the painting in terms of what it is, what it represents, and what it makes you feel.”
McGrady describes himself as an abstract realist, focused on depicting the essence of a scene with as few knife strokes as possible. He gravitated to large canvases and bold strokes and began to paint with abandon. “And I got so much pleasure out of painting that way,” he says, “that I knew I was on to my path.”
This summer, you can follow McGrady’s path to Ocean Galleries, where his mesmerizing seascapes have found a home.
“I like making beautiful paintings that you can hang on a wall, and you can get lost in them,” says the artist, “and that’s what I felt when I walked into Ocean Galleries. I thought this is where my work belongs.”
He adds, “Part of the thing with the sea is that I’ve always lived on the water. I surfed for many years, I used to scuba dive, and my wife, Ilka, and I are both avid sailors. I’m on the water all the time, so I have this affinity for the ocean.”
Ocean Galleries owners Kim and Josh Miller will be spotlighting McGrady’s art with a special viewing-room presentation on June 28, 29, and 30. “Michael does these beautiful, palette-knife beach scenes with so much activity and expressionism going on,” says Kim Miller, “you can just tell he has a fierce, colorful personality.”
And a generous spirit as well. When McGrady learned about the Helen L. Diller Vacation Home for Blind Children, he decided to donate a painting to the annual auction to help raise money for this wonderful organization in Avalon.
“Ilka and I love doing charitable work,” says the Seattle-area native who lives in southern California. They hope to attend the Barefoot Ball in September and plan to make a donation to the Diller Vacation Home from the Tynan McGrady Foundation, named for McGrady’s son who died in a tragic auto accident at the age of 23 in 2021.
“That’s what Tynan would want to do with the money,” McGrady says. “Give someone else a real meaningful experience of life in a manner and a way that is unique to them. He would be all over that.”
If you’ve been looking at McGrady’s photo on this page and thinking he looks familiar, let me tell you why. No, you didn’t see him buying suntan lotion at Hoy’s or light bulbs at Avalon Hardware, but chances are you’ve seen him at the movies or on your TV screen. In addition to his artistic pursuits, McGrady is a working actor with television and film credits that span four decades.
You may recognize him as a series regular on TNT’s “Southland” or recurring roles on CBS’s “SEAL Team” and Showtime’s “Ray Donovan.” And McGrady will reappear on your home screens this July 4th in a six-episode Netflix whodunit based on “The Perfect Couple” by Elin Hilderbrand, the queen of the beach read. Joining a cast that features Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, and Dakota Fanning, McGrady plays the father of a bride whose walk down the aisle is detoured by a murder investigation.
“The title is ‘The Perfect Couple’ and within that are several couples, and each couple has their own issues that they’re dealing with, real-life type issues,” McGrady says. “It’s quirky and funny and I think there are a lot of heartfelt moments as well.”
Asked about his favorite role of all time, McGrady doesn’t hesitate: “I loved my role in the 1992 movie ‘The Babe,’ the story of Babe Ruth [played by John Goodman]. I was Lou Gehrig. They set me up with a couple of pro baseball players to learn how to hit left-handed and play left-handed because I’m a right-hander. Hadn’t hit a hardball in years.
“And we shot that in Wrigley Field, which was pretty amazing, with several thousand extras in the stands. We got to wear the actual, authentic uniforms, so everything about it was authentic. I was a young actor working on a big studio movie for Universal — that was a big deal to me. I loved every minute of that job.”
McGrady, who is a cancer survivor, has an unabashed zest for life. At 18, he lost his father to melanoma and a year later he himself was diagnosed with stage 3 skin cancer. It hit the young McGrady hard, having just seen his father succumb to the disease. His thoughts turned to the big questions about the purpose of life that most people don’t ask until they hit their 60s and 70s.
He found comfort and direction in the words of Marcus Aurelius: “It is not death that a man should fear, but rather he should fear never beginning to live.” To McGrady, that quote speaks volumes.
“I’m a big family man,” he says. “I’m all about family. I’ve actually turned down a lot of series regular roles because I knew those jobs were going to require long hours and take me away from my family. Once I started having children, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice them for a certain level of success as an actor.”
He advises, “Don’t live your life with the fear of dying, live your life with the joy and the excitement of living. I just took on life and took a huge bite out of it.”
Indeed, McGrady has just about done it all: artist, actor, athlete, musician, sportsman, family man.
“You’ve got one shot at this thing,” he observes, “and you’ve got a lot more time than you think you have if you manage it correctly. But if you just assume you’re going to live forever and you’ve got a million things ahead of you, you’re going to miss out on a lot of life.”
Well said, Mr. McGrady. Well said.