Spitfire

Michael Peck’s artistic practice is concerned with the sensation of disorientation and dislocation that is often felt within the post modern world. Exploring issues regarding the loss of cultural identity, his work particularly focuses on the effects within minority groups and individuals existing on the fringe who are challenged to assimilate within the larger community. The scenes in Michael’s paintings are quiet, the participants are paused as they stand withdrawn, juxtaposed against a dynamic population; they are overwhelmed by mass-culture; one which has been composed from the interaction, assimilation and constant change of subcultures. His work looks at the place of the individual within a pluralistic society where a constant shift of values and beliefs leaves a great uncertainty of belonging. Giclée (pronounced "zhee-clay") is a neologism for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The word "giclée" is derived from the French language word "le gicleur" meaning "nozzle", or more specifically "gicler" meaning "to squirt, spurt, or spray". It was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial "Iris proofs" from the type of fine art prints artists were producing on those same types of printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such prints.