Dormant Colour, Peter Force

When I first stumbled across scientific photos of Australian parrot bird skins I knew I had to draw them. Big, messy pastel paintings of coloured torpedoes. I hunted them out and was lucky enough to spend time studying the collection held at the Auckland Museum. I was struck by how vibrant and vivid the birds were given some had been plucked from the outback over 100 years ago.
I’m fascinated with the things we leave behind once we’re gone. The art, the stories and in the case of these parrots, the colours. They’ve been dead and tucked away in a dusty museum drawer for years but their colours are as beautiful as day they were captured. It’s stubborn colour, bright enough to trick you into believing they might be still alive, and I wish they were.

Peter Force knew he wanted to become an artist the day he came home from high school and discovered a naked life drawing model in his bedroom posing for his mother (a successful artist in her own right).

He studied art at the internationally renowned Townsville TAFE College in Far North Queensland, Australia, graduated with honours in drawing and then spent time in Melbourne scribbling ads for a local newspaper. He then moved to London where he was snapped up as an illustrator by Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising.

Peter returned to Australia, secured a position at a small advertising agency in Sydney and after a few years was headhunted by Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising, New Zealand.

He has since lived and worked in New Zealand as an award winning art director, copywriter and illustrator. Dormant colour is his first solo art exhibition.