Michael Pearce

A pleasant couple of hours in the studio this evening proved productive, with enough time to add a second layer of dark leaves overlapping the earlier work. I’m getting more familiar with the pattern of the leaves and enjoying the swoop of the branches more this time around, so there’s a bit more of a feeling of movement to the leaves now as they curve across the sky. I didn’t make it all the way across the painting, but I’m pretty happy to have got this far and I enjoyed the presence of several of my painting students diligently working to prepare their panels for class Tuesday morning. They’re producing icons from scratch, learning every step of the way, from composition and drawing transfer to panel preparation and gilding, finally painting the image and finishing the pieces for display in our chapel.

Right now the leaves look a bit peculiar – they’re painted in blue in the first layer because the transparent green glaze that will go on next will finish darker and richer than the last layer on the previous leaves because of the blue beneath them, their darker value giving the illusion of bringing them forward in the piece and making the tree feel deeper, with denser branches. There are no bright highlights here on the edges of the foliage as there were on the earlier layer which I started in the light grey, so I’m expecting these leaves to feel more contained inside the foliage of the tree canopy, hopefully giving us the feeling of being within the shade of the acacia as we observe the traveler passing by.

This morning I sat and looked at the painting for thirty minutes or so to figure out what I needed to do next. I often sit for long periods when the work is getting closer to finishing. I think this period of looking is very important to really refine a painting because I see little things more clearly if I spend time to look carefully, making notes to correct little errors and omissions and making the piece really complete.

I’ve been having a good time in the studio tonight working on the branch up above the traveler and the landscape to the left of him. I’ve used my palette knife to scrape excess greens and browns onto the surface, then a soft brush to soften the landscape as it recedes from us. The browns will become a bed of wildflowers, while the foreground is going to get muddy and turn into a pathway. I gave the trunk of the tree a little more substance so that the middle ground is a touch more in focus, giving me some room to get really soft in the background, while the foreground can still be nice and sharp so that it pops forward.

I need to find a dog to place behind the traveler, snapping at his heels. I think this companion is warning the man of his impending danger – presently I see the allegory of the Fool as a warning against becoming so absorbed in the mystical exploration of god that we forget to live within the world, allowing ourselves to fall into disasters by not paying attention to what lies ahead in practical terms.

The first layer of leaves is looking good, but I think I need to put a second layer of acacia over what I’ve already done to add substance to the foliage, this layer feeling a little thin as it stands; its simple style still reminds me of Japanese watercolours or woodblock prints – not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not really what I’m looking for here.

I’ve planted an acacia alongside the traveler as he takes his step into the unknown, heading toward the rising sun. Next to the acacia the ground has been recently disturbed. He’ll be seen passing between two of these trees, because I’ve also started painting the foliage of another one above him and to his right, as he strides beneath its branches toward the precipice. Once he tumbles down he’ll be able to continue upon the right road between two stones, where he will once again fall down a precipice, finally reaching the valley floor, perhaps finding relief there between the still waters of a pair of lakes.

The tree is painted in Van Dyke Brown, using a filbert to lay down the paint, then a fan brush to soften the edges to a nice blur. I added a touch of Prussian Blue to the deep shadows in order to find darkness and to introduce a coolness to them. The leaves of the acacia above and to his right appear to be white, but they’re actually rendered in a grey / blue with some brown added to it. 

It’s pretty hard to see the pale initial layer of the leaves in the first photo so I’ve added a second closer image to show the work. Later I’ll put a glaze of olive green and some brown to shape them, than a few highlights. It’s challenging to stay focused on repetitive but simple work like this, because the leaf units are very similar, but the spacing of the steps follows a pattern, so I’m trying to keep referring to the branch I pulled from a handy acacia tree beside a creek close to my home.

I had a great day in the studio, starting at 7.30 when I realized that I simply don’t get enough painting time these days, got up and went to work, first using Lead white over the brightest part of the sky, then working for a long time on getting a new layer of warm colour onto his face and right hand, using a Graham Burnt Sienna and some of that wonderful Ceramic White by Holbein. I also touched the darkest features (eyelids, nostrils, mouth opening) with Van Dyke Brown. I enjoyed working the hair very much, using a filbert and the Van Dyke Brown to produce a softened edge to the hair as it meets the face, then one of my favorite script brushes for the fine hairs themselves. They’re about an inch long, pretty fine, normally used by sensible folk for sign painting. I like to use them for linear edges, here for the highlights about the hand, and some Iron Oxide lines to contain and define edges against the sky.

I love how a little detail makes the whole painting come to life, because really there’s not much going on in the dark area of his hair – it’s all about that meeting between hair and sky, hair and face, that matters – where a few gestures to suggest a mass of hair goes a long way.

I added some more highlights to the knot of his bag, then set to work about the raised hand, using the same warm mix to produce highlights and and warmth in the flesh. I’m rather happy with this day’s work.

In the pictures here you can see the appearance of the face and hand as it was by early evening, then a detail of the face.