That flu has returned with a vengeance, beating me up with a fever, coughing headaches and so forth, so I’ve spent the day at home, with only a brief trip to take my little girl to the dentist. However, yesterday night I ignored the thing and went to the studio to paint, getting another couple [...]
Here are the first few skulls – they will spread like a virus to fill the entire landscape behind the skeleton, while he strides forward trampling on the fallen. In the bottom left I’m planning on painting vegetation that is being pushed down as the skulls roll forward like a wave before triumphant death, perhaps [...]
I made it all the way across the painting above the first foreground grouping of skulls, but have yet to fill in the space to the lower left of them. That flu I had last week seems to have come back again today, and I’m feeling weak at the knees again, so I’m going to [...]
I’m still working my way across the painting, reaching about three quarters of the way this evening before fading. I’ve painted the most distant ones quite faintly, lifting offf much of the paint with a rag so that the brightness of the white is removed. As the skull get closer they become more carefully defined, [...]
I’ve made it halfway across the painting with these egg-shaped skull base layers. Having finished the Traveler I’m very conscious of the importance of detail in these paintings, so I want to rework the sky to a more polished level, then improve the detail of the feathers. My drawing students are working at producing three [...]
I’ve moved the angel back to the big easel, while at the other end of the studio the Traveler waits to be removed from the wooden panel he’s stapled to right now. Returning to the angel feels pretty natural, even after spending so much time focused on the flowers and landscape of the other painting. I’ve [...]
Michael Pearce The Traveler, 2010. Oil on Canvas. 96″ x 96″ (284.8cm x 284.8cm)
After three days in bed with the flu, I’ve made it back to the studio for a couple of hours, where I’ve been painting in short bursts, alternated with sitting down and resting with some ginseng green tea, which is becoming a studio necessity. Working despite feeling crappy has been worth it to get the [...]
So close now! I’ve added more foliage to the right side where the convergence of sky, land and foreground was creating a disturbing node too close to the edge of the painting – now the foliage is there it covers the intersection and directs the eye toward the acacia above, so the pleasant wave like [...]
I turned the roses red and added lots of new en grisaille flowers to the painting. On the right, mingled with the roses, a laurel, used by the Greeks and Romans to celebrate victory. Above the roses a spread of tiny forget-me-nots, for remembrance. Behind the traveler I added some Opium poppies that will go a rich [...]
