Click here to read: Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 2012

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Fighter Pilot #3, oil on linen, 137 x 137 cm

The genesis for my last year’s exhibition, “The Landing”, grew from a variety of sources, but primarily a conversation with my grandfather, Bob, shortly before he passed away. This talk was a rare opportunity to hear him scratch the surface about his experiences of World War 2. Although he spent much of his duty at the forefront of the war, serving the Royal navy, he only shared memories of events that happened on the periphery of conflict – mostly romantic stories of his time with my grandmother! However, one story left a lasting impression with me and seemed to resurface shortly after his death. He had witnessed a German bomber shot down on the outskirts of London. The following morning after the plane had been stripped of its weapons, local children came out to explore the wreckage, transforming it from an object of violence into something fascinating and wonderful. For me, the story seemed to be a beautiful reminder of the difference between the child and the adult world; a juxtaposition of innocence and conflict.  This one event was to become the inspiration for Spitfire, the first painting I produced for ‘The Landing’.

From there grew the body of works, portraits of children dressed up in WWII fighter pilot gear.  Which Fighter Pilot #3 was included in these series of paintings. For me, this particular painting portrays my personal connection between my past, my present and my future, as the child in this portrait is of my eldest son.

Overall, I sought to capture a certain naivety within the painting. The child exploring the wonderment, fascination, fear and uncertainty. The subject, like future generations, will never achieve any real insight into the truth of the events that happened during WWII.  They do, however, seek to create something new; to reinvent the past and potentially create a positive change for the future.

Doug Moran National Portrait Prize

Michael with his son, Morrison giving a talk at last friday’s special evening event.

Click here to read about Jeanette’s write up on Michael Peck’s Archibald portrait.

The Archibald Prize 2012 is now touring in Victoria at the TarraWarra Museum of Art.

Click here to watch a video conversation between Richard Morecroft, Jodie Daley & Michael Peck. Art Afterhours, Art Gallery of NSW.

Hyper-realism is to painting what intangible reality is to the man of Plato’s cave. The height of ideal perfection embodied on canvas. This is what Michael Peck gives us in his most recent works. A trip to the idea-in-itself of the artist on his perception of life. A life it would seem, to be taken from an Enid Blyton fairy tale, with protagonists,especially small, and above all innocent. Michael Peck conceived his latest exhibition The Landing from a conversation he had with his grandfather just before he died. In him his grandfather confessed to a childhood memory he had kept under jealous silence. During WWII, German bombers flew over the city of London when one of them was hit by a bomb. The next morning the neighborhood kids came to the scene and began playing with the remains they had found. That which was designed to sow chaos and war, now served to maintain the candid spirit of London children. A moment of leisure to paint with pastels a somber and sad time. One of the most significant techniques of Michael Peck is the constant use of small monochromatic palettes to capture his works. But this time he skips all self limitation and decides to add two more colors to his palette, red and orange. This embodies new tonal attributes to the work, giving the appearance of a Polaroid photograph. War games from a child. Recently, Michael has been selected with 40 other artists as an Archibald Prize finalist, the most prestigious prize in artistic portrait in Australia. In a matter of days the winner will be announced and we wish him well!

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There are 41 artists who’s portraits have made it in this year and a majority of them are Victorians. Michael, along with fellow artists like Natasha Bieniek, Juan Ford, Vincent Fantauzzo, and Luke Cornish just to name are few will be heading up to Sydney at the end of March for the announcement of the 2012 Archibald Prize Winner.

The Archibald is an non-acquisitive prize of $75,000.

‘The painting marks a shift away from the almost black and white or sepia palette I have been using for the past few years and marks a transition into a super saturated range of warm reds and oranges,’ says Michael Peck.

‘This new palette shifts the time frame, drawing on the aesthetic of Polaroid photographs from my childhood in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The warm orange glow is the colour by which I remember my childhood in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, where my brothers and I would play war games in our neighbours’ yards. Inspired by films, we would dress up in army surplus gear and paint our faces. We’d dig bunkers, make guns from old timber scraps and run around pretending to be heroes. Now that I am in my 30s I notice the ways in which my own children play similar games and I wonder why children can be so fascinated by war.

Born in Melbourne in 1977, Peck has a Bachelor of Fine Art (honours) (Painting) from Monash University. He has exhibited as a solo artist since 1998 in Melbourne and Sydney. His work is concerned with the sensation of disorientation and dislocation often felt in the modern world. He has been represented in a number of group shows and was a finalist in the 2010 Dobell Drawing Prize, the 2005 Metro 5 Art Award and the 2002 City of Hobart Art Prize. In 1998 he was the winner of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Trustees Award.

View all finalists at Art Gallery NSW