My paintings begin in the landscape, but they are not attempts to describe it. They arise from sustained observation of natural surfaces—rock faces, weathered cliffs, tree bark on ancient trunks, lichen-covered stone and the intricate structures found within forest and coastal environments.
Through repeated encounters with these places, I become interested in the rhythms that lie beneath their visible forms: the fractures of rock, the layered textures and markings of bark, and the patterns of growth, erosion, light and movement that shape the natural world over time. In the studio, these observations are transformed through abstraction into paintings that seek to capture the experience of places or observed phenomena rather than their literal appearance.
Working primarily in oil, I build compositions through layers of colour, gesture and mark-making. Elements of landscape emerge and dissolve, inviting viewers to navigate the space between memory and observation, structure and intuition.
While some works originate in geological formations (‘Stone’) or coastlines (‘Water’), and others in the patterns in the trunks of living trees (‘Wood’), together they explore the interconnected systems that sustain our natural landscapes. The paintings reflect a preoccupation with the complexity, resilience and vulnerability of these ecosystems, possibly fuelled by my 2009 survival of a large brain tumour, as well as with a long-held fascination for the delicate relationships between landforms, vegetation and the life they support.
Ultimately, my work is an invitation to look more closely into both the artworks for subtly embedded animal, bird or human forms, as well as into the landscape itself not as scenery, but as a living presence shaped by time, memory and continual change.
My Australian works were first exhibited in Wellington Gallery in Sydney, before my move to Adelaide in March 2020, since which time my artwork has sold into every state and territory in Australia and half a dozen countries internationally. My abstract works are represented in South Australia by Ex Animo Art Gallery in Adelaide, and my landscapes and seascapes are available through Artworx Gallery in Goolwa or by direct contact with me. See something of my artistic process on Instagram.
Ex Animo: Andreas Buse 0466 272 852 | contact@exanimoart.com
Artworx: Steve Allen 0421 357 736 or Belinda Seymour 0481 760 467
The artist: patrick@patrickjohnpearson.com | 0498 188 909
CV –
Group Exhibition, Ex Animo Art Gallery, August 2025
Group Exhibition, Artworx Gallery, Goolwa, August-September 2025
‘Lightness of Being’, Spier & Wright, Goodwood, September 2025
2024:
‘Translucent Memories’ 3-artist exhibition Ex Animo, July-August
‘Birth & Rebirth’, Solo exhibition Farina, Hyde Park, July
2023:
‘Spectrum’, 3-artist exhibition End/Space_ Gallery, October
Finalist, Adelaide Parklands Art Prize Exhibition, Adelaide Festival Centre
2022:
Group Exhibition, Goodwood Theatre & Studio, February
Solo Exhibition, Chateau Yaldara, Barossa Arts Festival, April
2021:
Solo Exhibition, Curate, Prospect, July
Group Exhibition, Newmarch Gallery, Prospect, July/August
Solo Exhibition, Goodwood Theatre & Studio, August
Winner, Established Artist category, Mark Butler Art Awards, Adelaide
Relevant Press:
2025: SA Life Magazine, November (Art featured with Medallion Homes) 2024: SA Life Magazine, Luxury Edition, September 2021: Channel 7 Interview and Airing
Patrick with his award-winning painting ‘Bush Party’ – an abstraction of bark patterns on a paper mulberry tree in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens
