Patrick John Pearson

Oil on Stretched Canvas 120 x 180cm

'Water Creatures (River Red Gum)' highlights the intricate patterns and mark-making done by nature, in this case on the beautiful bark of a giant river red gum tree. The forms are subtle suggestions – but see if you can find the 3 nude human figures, the 3 seahorses, the 3 kangaroos, the 2 parrots, the wolf, the dingo, the turtle, the owl, the duck, the crow, the very shy white horse, the whale, and some of the cranes and herons and flying or diving birds.

AU$4910 unframed

Oil on Stretched Canvas, 91 x 61cm

'Lilac Glimpses (River Red Gum)' deliberately intensifies the colours frequently found in South Australia's river red gum trunks and branches, and the tiny forms and figures dancing over the entire canvas are suggested by the marks and patterns etched into the tree's bark by nature. The artist can see 5 nude human forms and a host of animals. Can you find the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine in the centre, or the kangaroo and seahorse close to it? The koala and flying fox near the bottom of the painting? The 2 elephants, the rhino, the rabbit, the dingo and the dragon, the rosella peeping out of a crack in the trunk? Is that a pair of wolves just visible in the top right corner?

AU$1810 unframed

Oil on Canvas , 183 x 122 cm

In the Adelaide Botanic Gardens there is a tall old eucalyptus right beside the Simpson Shadehouse and its bark is wonderful – smooth coffee- and eggshell-coloured textures from around head-height to the crown, and wonderful strips of rougher texture closer to the ground. The patterns in the trunk seem to contain the most intriguing mix of shapes and forms, so this large painting reveals animals and birds and figures – many of which seem to me as artist to be traditionally associated with wisdom: owl, woman, elephant, raven, turtle and many more. And other shapes jump out at the viewer at different distances from the canvas. Ready to hang.

AU$4910

Oil on Canvas, 183 x 122 cm

In Angas Gardens in Adelaide, where War Memorial Drive meets King William Road, there is a stately old sugar gum, a species that is endemic to the South Australia region. The patterns in the bark are striking and seem to hint at all manner of beautiful and occasionally strange animal, bird, fish and even human forms – some native to Australia, some from far away. At the base of this portrait of the sugar gum, a koala happily acknowledges all the creatures in the bark and welcomes them into his meeting place. Ready to hang.

AU$4910

Oil on Canvas 102 x 152cm

AU$3910

Original oil on canvas, 91 x 61 cm

A treebark pattern portrait of a portion of the trunk of a magnificent river red gum in the Mitcham Reserve in Adelaide. It represents only slightly intensified colours of the tree trunk, and the patterns in the bark reveal animals, birds and human forms ... while light and shadow in a small hollow in the trunk seems to show an eye in the tree, watching the viewer.

AUD$1810

Oil on Canvas, 76 x 51 cm

This painting shows a close-up look at the colours and patterns on a small portion of the trunk of a particularly beautiful red gum in Adelaide – and the patterns etched by time and nature in the bark suggest the shapes of all sorts of birds and animals of Australia and elsewhere – especially elephants. Lots of hidden elephants in the colours of the bark. Framed in oak and ready to hang.

AU$1510

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

Sugar gums, endemic to the south coast of Australia, display the most fascinating patterns in their bark as the trees age. This painting of the trunk of a mature tree in Adelaide in South Australia shows strong contrasts between the patches of creamy-coloured and soft-violet and blue skin versus the dark umber and burnt sienna of its scars and knots. Patterns resembling powerful owls – Australia’s largest owl – gaze directly at the viewer, while others suggest all manner of Australian birds such as kookaburras and the crane-like brolga. At the same time shapes reminiscent of dingoes and even humans slip and slide out of focus. Ready to hang.

AU$3910

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

One of the oldest sugar gum trees – eucalyptus cladocalyx – in urban Adelaide, South Australia is found on the very edge of Palmer Gardens in North Adelaide. Where the trunk has suffered damage sometime in the past two centuries, the protective resinous sap has hardened and darkened into a thick dark crystalline structure which forms the focus of this little portrait. It’s a beautiful tree in its proper and original habitat – and here it’s host to some African animals visiting within its patterned trunk. Ready to hang.

AUD$1450

Oil on Prepared Hardboard, 98.5 x 79.5 cm Framed

'Blues Evening' is an abstract painting of the bark patterns in a river red gum in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, and if the viewer spends some time looking at the painting, shapes and forms of humans, birds and animals begin to appear. A sinuous, relaxing, beautifully flowing Treebark portrait in a floating oak frame.

AUD$1910

Oil on Canvas, 92 x 61 cm

Sugar gums are endemic to the south coast of Australia, and older trees develop fascinating patterns in their bark. This muscular portrait of an old tree at Morialta Falls in Adelaide shows strong contrasts between the lighter, almost creamy-coloured skin of the tree and the dark umber and burnt sienna scars and knots that dot the lower trunk. Bird-like creatures (glossy ibis?) and animal forms peek from the patterns, some challenging the viewer’s gaze and others shrinking from it, and there are hints of dynamic and powerful human figures also – in a highly charged dance or twisting embrace. Ready to hang.

AU$1810

Oil on Canvas, 92 x 61 cm

I’m slightly obsessed with the big white poplar next to the statue commemorating Colonel William Light, in North Adelaide – it’s particularly beautiful, and saying it’s uniquely patterned is a sad understatement. This portrait emphasises the colour contrasts between the absolute whiteness of most of the bark and the fleshy darkness of the patterns upon it – and the tree has bumps and humps that take on animal and human features in the imagination. It’s watching us far more closely that any of us realise. Ready to hang.

AU$1810

Original oil on canvas, 91 x 61 cm

A treebark pattern portrait of a magnificent river red gum in the Mitcham Reserve in Adelaide. It represents only slightly intensified colours of the tree trunk, and the animals and forms that emerge are intriguing and beautiful – see if you can find a bilby, a shark, a dragon, an emu, a giant …

AUD1810

Oil on Canvas, 153 x 91 cm

The bark-skin of a silver birch is always beautiful, and this tree in the weather extremes of the Scottish Highlands was moss-covered and peeling, especially where the trunk had been scraped or gnawed during early growth. Beneath the peeling long rolls of bark, various images are hidden – in the lower left, an elephant keeps to the shadows, and throughout the canvas animal or bird faces peek out, while the peeling rolls themselves are reminiscent of the legs on the flag of the Isle of Man. Ready to hang.

AU$3710

Oil on Canvas, 102 x 152 cm

Part of the ‘Endangered Species’ series. This abstract painting of a charging black rhino is inspired by Ted Hughes' poem 'Black Rhino' of 1988, written for Prince Philip in his then role as patron of the World Wildlife Fund. Elements of the painting are suggested by images in the poem – the rapid charging forward movement, the wristwatch reward for the poacher after the rhino horn, the moth .... The painting addresses the horrifying idea that a 60-million-year-old species could be made extinct in our lifetimes because of human greed and ignorance, and is a plea to humankind to cherish and protect the wonderful creatures still left to the world.

AUD$3910

Oil on Stretched Canvas 152 x 101cm

A bold abstracted nude study of a woman facing the viewer, whom she appears to be contemplating and sizing up, rather than the other way round. The background is a riot of colour, with patterns inspired by the bark patterns of a particular plane tree in Adelaide, and the canvas is peopled with numerous creatures, most of which are mere suggestions that the viewer must complete in the studio of their own imaginations.

AU$3910 unframed

Oil on Stretched Canvas 152 x 101cm

A subtle abstracted nude study with a calming colour palette, overlaid onto a canvas patterned according to the bark patterns of a Scots pine tree.

AU$3910 unframed

Oil on canvas, 61 x 30.5 cm

Beside the creek itself on the Brownhill Creek walking trail in Adelaide's eastern suburbs there is a tall river red gum, and the bark patterns on its trunk suggest human and animal forms – so this treebark abstract shows the Greek goddess of wild animals and the hunt, Artemis, in her Roman form as Diana, with dogs and attendants, and bathing under a fall of water.

AUD$1290

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

The Chinese tallow tree is a tree native to eastern China and Taiwan, and this abstract 'portrait' shows patterns in the grey bark of the trunk of one in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Deciduous and spectacularly coloured in autumn, its waxy seeds are the sources of stillingia oil, a drying oil used in paints and varnishes. In this painting, the furrowed patterns in the trunk suggest the shapes and faces of dragons – sea-dragons, flying dragons, and the dragons seen in Chinese New Year celebrations. Ready to hang.

AU$1450

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

The painting is an abstracted close-up portrait of the patterns in the treebark of a river red gum at Currency Creek Waterfall trail near Middleton, Goolwa and Victor Harbor in South Australia. River red gums vary so much in the patterns that form on their trunks, and this tree is particularly mottled and colourful, with many of the little variations in colour suggesting dragons or birds or kangaroos – or even crustaceans like yabbies. It's a highly immersive, interactive painting – and rewarding of time spent exploring it. Ready to hang.

AU$1450

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

A quirky close-up abstracted portrait of the bark patterns in a tall sugar gum eucalyptus beside Brownhill Creek in Adelaide, South Australia, which to me seemed to hint at a host of unusual animals and birds, and tiny human-like forms. The painting is executed with brushwork, yet retains a strong sense of texture, with a limited but pleasingly vivid palette. Tiny figures reminiscent of cave paintings dot the canvas – including a cave artist working on his own, under a giant image of a spotted hyena. Ready to hang.

AU$1450

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

AU$3910

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

This is a second close-up portrait of the bark of the mature coral tree I discovered in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. The painting laterally mirrors the earlier painting Natural Exuberance, and it is filled with energy and movement, using blues and purples as major component colours. Coral trees are gorgeous – both in their bark and their breathtaking flowers, and the bark patterns of this tree reveal multiple animal and bird figures and hint at a nude human form with arms held high in joy – perhaps in celebration of trees and forests and what they mean to the world and to us. Ready to hang.

AU$3910

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

Coral trees are marvellous – they can look quite hidden in their natural landscapes, and then they flower and are breathtaking. This is a close-up portrait of the bark of a mature coral tree in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, and the bark patterns inspire visions of all sorts of figures – wild like monkeys and lions and storks, but also domestic animals like cows and mules. There's a nude in here too, herself hiding an owl and a bird's profile – and the exuberance of the bark and of the female form inspired the title of the painting. Trees facilitate so much of the good things we as humans need – depend upon – or love in the world, which is what Natural Exuberance acknowledges and celebrates. Ready to hang.

AU$5950

Oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

The painting is an abstracted portrait of a Turkish pine (Pinus brutia) located in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens in South Australia. The portrait is of a knot in the tree's trunk, and knots are usually evidence of the tree's having undergone some trauma in its past. What is so inspiring is that the tree has healed itself and the evidence of its healing moves outwards from the scar of the knot in a joyful Fibonacci spiral of new bark flakes. The colours are optimistic and warm, and if one looks closely, the bark patterns hide or reveal some intriguing and delightful little creatures. Stretched and ready to hang.

AUD$2850

Oil on stretched canvas, 61 x 46 cm

An abstracted portrait of the patterns on the bark of a river red gum in Currency Creek near Middleton and Victor Harbor in South Australia. Exploring the patterns, or letting the eyes roam around the painting for a time, the viewer begins to discern the shapes of many and various birds and animals around the central figure in the bark patterns, with the easiest bird to spot being the kingfisher on her shoulder.

AU$1450

Palette knife oil on canvas, 91.4 x 45.7 cm

A thickly textured palette knife painting of the trunk of an old river red gum in the town of Tanunda in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, with the thick oil paint seeming to show the shapes of creatures in the patterns of the tree. Worked into the thick oils are strands of olive colour, and the sides of the stretched painting are also coloured a lighter shade of olive. The background sky is rendered in brushwork and is Impressionist in style, almost like some of Van Gogh's skies, showing radiating patterns of whorling energy. Calming and uplifting. Ready to hang.

AUD$1530

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

On the walking trail at Brownhill Creek in South Australia there are several old pine trees with unusual and beautiful bark patterns. In this painting, the form and shape of one of the trees, probably an Aleppo pine, is shown as an outline, while the patterns in a small area of its trunk are presented using colours close to those of the original bark flakes of the tree. The result is an intriguing and yet restful portrait of the glorious old pine.

AUD$1450

Oil on cotton canvas, 61 x 30.5 cm

Alongside the creek on the Currency Creek walking trail near Goolwa in South Australia there is a river red gum whose bark patterns seem to suggest a human shape, surrounded by smaller patterns that could easily be sea dragons – so the abstract painting becomes a swimmer surrounded by sea-dragons and seahorses in pinks and apricots and gentle blues. Ready to hang.

AUD$1290

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

This is a brightly toned portrait of the bark of a beautiful and mature Jacaranda tree in Chatswood in Sydney. The painting hints at some of the animals and plants Persephone is associated with, like monkeys and parrots and bats, and narcissus and lilies, and the pomegranate seeds that confined her to the underworld for six months of each year, and to fertility. Hades is hiding beside her, there are flames and spirits of course, and Cerberus guards the entrance to the underworld. The memory of her mother Demeter is there too (with a nod to Julia Roberts’s mouth). Ready to hang.

AU$3910

Oil on Canvas 152 x 102cm

The casuarina tree is native to Australia, and in Alexandria in Sydney a big casuarina has beautiful, rough, textured bark that made for an ideal tree portrait. Druantia is a Gallic goddess proposed by Robert Graves, and she is the 'fairy' in this painting teeming with animals and birds hidden in the garden created by the bark patterns – koala, bilby, elephant, rhino, kangaroo, bluejay, owl … and many others. Ready to hang.

AU$3910

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

The painting was inspired by the bark of a paperbark tree in Alexandria in Sydney. Paperbarks have intriguing textures, ranging from filmy and transparent elements to rough and pithy, and the patterns formed in the bark bring all sorts of shapes and images to mind. The tree decides its patterns, and the colours combine to reveal animals, fish and birds dancing in the joyful organised chaos that is Nature. Ready to hang.

AU$3910

Oil on Canvas, 76 x 51 cm

This is a close-up portrait of the bark of an impressive Bhutan cypress in the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide in South Australia. The cypress has a large knot in its trunk, and I felt that the patterns within it hinted at the outline of a small tree-spirit. The lines of the painting seem to flow, to reveal in the patterns cats, birds, newts and hint at the presence of several more animals. Ready to hang.

AU$1510

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

Arbutus Glandulosa, or the Mexican Strawberry tree, has a rich oxblood-red bark which peels to reveal glorious pinks and greens underneath, the fresh new skin before that too ages and hardens into the rich red. The Adelaide Botanic Gardens has a lovely and mature specimen, and the patterns in its bark suggest an ephemeral human form, and a slightly less ephemeral shape of an owl – hence the title. The painting is filled with suggestions of birds, which is fitting for a tree that has masses of bell-shaped white flowers to pollinate before the fruits form. Ready to hang.

AU$1450

Oil on Canvas, 51 x 76 cm

Portrait of the old hollow oak in Groot Constantia vineyard in Cape Town, South Africa. Filled with energy and movement, ‘Energy Centres’ swirls the gaze to a focus just left of centre, and then draws you into seeing a host of faces, figures and forms – birds, reptiles, humans, spirits – and a mammoth. The vibrancy of this smaller Treebark painting reflects the sense of wise and benevolent life energy that one finds in old trees, and so often especially in old oaks. Ready to hang.

AU$1510

Oil on Canvas, 76 x 51 cm

Just 25 days after WW1 began, this English oak was planted as a sapling and a memorial tree at the Adelaide Oval, South Australia. Over a hundred years later it’s recognised as probably the first memorial tree planted to commemorate the First World War. The bark portrait imagines the oak tree as a memorial to species born and lost throughout time, and especially to those species currently being lost or threatened by human activity. The hints of cave-painted animals confirm animals that were here and are now gone – but there are other animals hiding in the bark which are still with us. Ready to hang.

AU$1510

Oil on Canvas, 91 x 46 cm

The white milkwood (this one in Belvidere, Knysna, South Africa) has bark texture that seems like organic Lego blocks have been grown on the tree’s trunk – each scale of the bark stands out proudly from the deep ‘chasms’ that separate them. In the very centre of the painting, one of the bark scales looks like the Madonna with the infant at her breast. Ready to hang.

AU$1210

Oil on Canvas, 61 x 92 cm

The painting is ablaze with earth tones and orange-reds to represent the patterns of a paperbark tree in Alexandria in Sydney, whose almost white bark glows fire-orange during the strange light caused by the 2019 bushfires ringing the city. The patterns in the bark give rise to half-glimpsed images of animals, birds and spirits – and faces and eyes that watch what humans are doing to the forests that are their homes. There are hints of animals and creatures from almost every continent in the painting. Ready to hang.

AU$1810

Oil on Canva, 122 x 61 cm

'Dolphin Splash' is a smooth-textured painting on a long canvas. In San Gimignano in Tuscany, an old cherry tree has had its share of troubles, and the trunk is broken off almost at head height. Beneath that break, the cherry tree continues to survive and grow – and this abstract-tending portrait of the tree trunk shows a long scar where the trunk split and healed. It's beautiful and humbling, and restorative, and female, and induces a calm state of mind in its viewer. Even in duress and after hardship, the cherry is a lovely tree. Ready to hang.

AU$2150

Oil on Canvas, 122 x 61 cm

Inspired by the hollowed trunk and excitingly textured bark of a white mulberry tree in the Piazza Fontana in Sperlonga, an impossibly picturesque town about halfway between Rome and Naples, where the Roman emperor Tiberius filled a huge cave with statues depicting scenes from Homer's 'Odyssey'. The nearby San Felice Circeo is visible from the heights of the town. The thickly painted, almost sculptural painting in shades of blue, yellow and orange is both an abstract expressionist portrait of the tree's trunk and an artistic response referencing the meeting between Circe and Odysseus as recounted by Homer. Ready to hang.

AU$2150

Oil on Canvas 24 W x 36 H x 1.4 in/61 W x 92 H x 3.5 cm

'Ravensworld' alternates between textured and smooth surfaces in a mosaic-like exploration of the patterns in the bark of an old olive tree in San Gimignano, Tuscany. The knots in the trunk reflect the wisdom acquired by long-lived beings that are not necessarily human – the olive tree with its acquired imperfections, the raven watching the tapestry of colours and figures on the rest of the canvas. Just spending time gazing at the painting seems to induce a contemplative and meditative feeling in the viewer. Ready to hang.

AU$1810 including shipping (ships rolled internationally)

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Oil on Canvas, 46 x 30.5 cm

A very close-up portrait of the unusual skin-like bark of a mature ponytail palm, or agave tree, in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. The patterns seemed to suggest the outline of a zebra-like pony’s head and mane – and quite a few other creatures or forms.

AUD$590

Oil on Canvas, 102 x 152 cm

A landscape-orientated portrait of the bark of a beautiful big Jacaranda tree in Chatswood in Sydney, employing the colours of the tree’s flowers and leaves into the patterns of its bark. The shapes and patterns flow and move to create fleeting glimpses of birds and animals and fish – and eyes, as Nature watches humankind to see whether we are ultimately friend and defender or rapacious desecrator. Ready to hang.

AU$3910