Michael Pearce

Michael Pearce (born 1965) is an English, California-based figurative painter and author. Personal life Since 1990 Pearce has lived in California, having left Los Angeles to move to Thousand Oaks in 2008, he is now a Ventura County resident. He is married to art historian Aihua Zhou. Life and work Michael J. Pearce was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1965. He is a figurative painter and an outspoken proponent of what he terms "skill-based art". Writing for KCET, Sarah Linn describes Pearce's painting as "[m]assive, mythical and brimming with allegorical subtext [. . . that] demonstrate a subtle alchemy all their own -- the transformation of ordinary oil paint and canvas into narratives that embrace the magic and romance of an earlier era." "Much of Pearce’s art is figurative and allegorical. He uses oil paint to transform canvases into stories that embrace the magic and romance of an earlier era. He uses conceptual themes that capture his audience by encouraging their individual imaginative interpretation of the events he has painted. There’s meaning here — a reconstruction of ideas bigger than self — that makes these paintings feel greater than their already large size." The works are marked by the use of symbolism, male and female imagery and celestial references to address the mystical relationship between man and God. They are "a beguiling mix of old-school technique and fresh narrative possibility".