Michael Pearce

Here’s a front view of the paintings taken with my phone, so the quality’s pretty poor, but it gives you the general idea. I’ve been chuckling about how much it looks as if Death is trying to catch the goose!

The left wing is taking shape now, with another layer of white over the brown texture layer, beginning to define the shapes of the feather layers and bring some depth to the surface. Ultimately I expect to put some blue over this work which curiously will probably work to make it seem whiter. The goose is working out beautifully as a model, helping me to understand the structure of the wings and with the layering and shape of the feathers. I’ve collected feathers of the local hawks for reference too, and I think I’ll add their patterns on the surface to make Death appear a little more predatory.

This was a real pleasure to work on, because I had the company of Paul and Stessa in the studio, Paul working on a splendid head, while Stessa painted. We had a great time singing along with Talking Heads albums that we had all grown up with. Retro eighties alternative music in the studio!

 

“And you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here…?”

I’ve done a base layer of Van Dyke Brown to the left wing, wiping it to make a soft feathery base which will become more defined as I put more detail into the surface.

It’s looking  a bit leathery and bat-like at present, which is enjoyable, but gives him an overly demonic appearance, which isn’t really what I want for him, preferring to present death as a fear-inspiring natural force of change that should be expected, but not as something necessarily evil. I was chatting with my colleague Dru Pagliassotti about the painting on Friday, and she described it as “death exultant”, striking me as an apt expression for the rock star figure I’m making.

I’ll post photos tomorrow, when I’ve put the same treatment down on the right side.

At last I’m back in the studio working on the angel of death. I used a long lining brush to paint the details of the arm bones, then my fingers to smudge in shadows around the bones and into the surface of the wings. I’m building the surface of the wing way darker than it will end up, in a Van Dyke brown that will take a glaze of Zinc white and pop forward while leaving the textures that I’ve laid in with a towel rag. 

I’ve been sketching for the afterlife piece, which I think I have nailed down now, having morphed from a suspended figure in the void to a fairly small circle with a male and female pair laying entwined with each other in a yin yang arrangement. I think I know who to get to model for it, so I hope to get moving with this piece pretty soon.