Memento Mori

Note: Prices on Bluethumb reflect platform fees. For direct purchases, please contact me via Instagram @michael.vanblerk.art for reduced rates.

Contemplate the transience of life and the pursuit of divine truth with this striking Memento Mori painting, inspired by Caravaggio’s St Jerome Writing. Rendered in a dramatic Baroque style, this original acrylic artwork captures a vanitas scene of a skull resting beside books, quill in hand, with bold chiaroscuro lighting and expressive brushwork.

Painted in rich, layered tones on a 50x50cm stretched canvas, the piece is professionally varnished in satin for subtle sheen and archival protection. The artwork is housed in a natural timber float frame and arrives ready to hang, making it a timeless addition to any sacred space, study, or collector’s gallery wall.

This is an original work — not a print — hand-painted by an independent Australian artist. Ideal for admirers of Baroque art, religious symbolism, Catholic home décor, or lovers of Caravaggio's legacy.

Follow

Airlie Beach Art is the home of Whitsunday-based artist Michael van Blerk — featuring luminous regional seascapes capturing the light and water of the Whitsunday Islands, and powerful figurative work rooted in the Baroque tradition of sacred and devotional painting.

All works are original oil or acrylic on canvas, available for sale and commission.

irlie Beach Art
Seascapes
Figurative
Commissions
Contact
●
Cart
0
Airlie Beach, Queensland

Airlie Beach Art
Paintings made to be lived with.
Airlie Beach Art is the home of Whitsunday-based artist Michael van Blerk — featuring luminous regional seascapes capturing the light and water of the Whitsunday Islands, and powerful figurative work rooted in the Baroque tradition of sacred and devotional painting.

All works are original oil or acrylic on canvas, available for sale and commission.

Michael van Blerk is a self-taught acrylic and oil painter based in Airlie Beach, Queensland, working in two distinct disciplines — regional landscape and classical figurative painting.

Drawn to the dramatic light and colour of the Whitsunday region, Michael's seascape work captures the character of one of Australia's most iconic coastlines with bold colour and painterly confidence.

His figurative work operates in a different register entirely — dark, psychologically intense oil paintings in the tradition of the Baroque masters, exploring sacred and theological subjects with unflinching seriousness and emotional weight.

Michael exhibits locally and regionally and accepts commissions in both disciplines.