Patrick Pearson is an award-winning artist painting powerful and immersive abstracts, mainly inspired by tree-bark patterns and wild creatures, and thickly textured landscapes or seascapes in oils, all of which explore the connectedness between human and natural worlds. Winner of the Mark Butler Art Prize 2021 and Finalist in the Adelaide Parklands Art Prize 2023, the artist draws inspiration from cave art, traditional African mask design, the Impressionist and Cubist schools, and from the patterns in natural features and processes. In his paintings, what initially appears abstract frequently suggests hidden forms – birds, extinct or living animals, and spirit or human shapes. The deeper you look, the more you see.
Patrick’s love affair with the natural world – especially seas and trees – began when he was a small child, and his artworks address the crises of old-growth forest loss and the extinction of wild species. There is a deeply felt personal connection between the artist and his trees and seas – and all the wilder world that enables the survival of so many threatened creatures. Recovering after brain surgery in 2009 for a large tumour, he found solace and strength in woods and beaches. His work is held in numerous private collections internationally.
Recent exhibitions: ‘Translucent Memories’ 3-artist exhibition Ex Animo, July-August 2024/ Sole exhibition Farina, Hyde Park, July 2024/ ‘Spectrum’, 3-artist exhibition End/Space_ Gallery, October 2023/ Adelaide Parklands Art Prize Finalist Exhibition – group exhibition, Adelaide Festival Centre 2023/ The Eloquence of South Australian Trees – solo exhibition, Mitcham SA October 2022/ Dancing Shapes: Treescapes and Seascapes – solo exhibition, Chateau Yaldara, Lyndoch SA with Barossa Arts Festival April 2022/ Dances with Trees – solo exhibition, Goodwood Theatre and Studios, SA March 2022/ Group exhibition, Victor Harbor Art Show January 2022
Patrick with his award-winning painting ‘Bush Party’ – an abstract of bark patterns on a paper mulberry tree in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia
Patrick with his painting ‘Sources of Wisdom’, an abstract inspired by the bark patterns of a Eucalyptus regnans, or mountain ash tree, in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, filmed for a 7News interview