Michael J. McNeil primarily uses acrylic, although he will use almost anything available in his studio, including oil paint, pencil, shoe polish, chalk, and markers.  If it works for the effect he's after, it's on the canvas.

"As with many artists, I am seeking a broader public validation of my artistic view. Most of my work is about edges, frames, and filters.  Edges because all of the edges are artificially imposed by man, the painting edge along with the field edge, house edge, the edge of the automobile window, etc.  Frames because the act of recording something, such as music, painting, a script, are all methods of "framing" an idea.  And, filters, from both a communication perspective and because I have the beginnings of cataracts which makes things seem bluer to me than they really are.  I have also been experimenting with tissue applied over the paint on wet varnish and then varnished again.  Sometimes the tissue is flat and other times folded and wrinkled.  Landscape and farm scenes with many edges and frames and me as the first filter and the viewer as the second."

— Mike McNeil, statement for January 2006 one man show, Against the Wall Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska