Patrick John Pearson

Oil on Canvas, 100 x 150cm

Palette-knife painting of the island of Capri off the coast of Naples, seen from the vantage point of the 3500-year-old granite sphinx on the corner of the little chapel at San Michele on Anacapri.

AUD$3910 unframed

Oil on Canvas, 100 x 150cm

Palette-knife impasto painting of the famous Obelisk landmark at Robe, as seen from the beach cliff directly to its south.

AUD$3910 unframed

Palette knife oil on stretched canvas, 92 x 152 cm

The old jetty at beautiful Port Willunga beach is well known to locals and tourists alike, for the old 'Sticks' as most people refer to the jetty, for the caves hollowed out of the cliff that shade beachgoers in the height of the South Australian summer, for the gloriously coloured water and for the restaurant, the Star of Greece, that attracts a range of clientele from around the country. This painting is mainly done with palette knife and rich, thick paint – showing the beach in one of its rare moments when no-one is there even though the sun is sparkling brightly on the water!

AUD$3710

Palette knife oil on stretched canvas, 102 x 152 cm

The colourful giant rocks of the long sandy beach of Sellicks Beach in South Australia are well known and frequently photographed by both visitors and locals. Sellicks Beach, known as Witawali by the Kaurna people, is a popular beach in Aldinga Bay, about 50km south of the centre of Adelaide itself. This palette knife painting of the rocks and hills and beach captures the light and shadow created by cloudless summer days of the Fleurieu Peninsula, and invites the viewer onto the shell- and pebble-strewn sands.

AUD$3910

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 102 x 152 cm

Close to Victor Harbor in South Australia, Encounter Bay is host to several beautiful beaches, and King's Beach is one of them – sometimes reflecting absolutely smooth blue and turquoise water and sometimes being pounded by wild green waves. This palette-knife painting is of a calm blue day in Encounter Bay, looking east towards the Bluff and clearly showing the little group of rust-red rocks that stand out from the rest at one side of the beach.

AUD$3910

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

This painting of the iconic Obelisk in Robe is thickly textured, painted with palette knife, and shows the old path towards the Obelisk – and the drop from the path's edge into the sea, which has been undercutting the rock cliff on which the Obelisk is built.

AUD$990

Oil on stretched canvas, 50 x 70 W x 50 cm

An impasto painting inspired by the view towards the famous Obelisk in Robe, South Australia, showing the distinctive blues of the sea in the area, as well as the blue-greys of the hardy scrub that grows on the limestone outcrop.

AUD$990

Oil on stretched canvas, 50 x 70 cm

The hiking trail along the shores of Encounter Bay includes the beautiful little cove of Petrel Cove, a rocky little inlet which is best to swim only when the sea is perfectly calm. The views from the trail over Petrel Cove are spectacular, and this painting shows the view looking towards the Bluff. The painting is thickly painted rich oil paint, applied using a palette knife, and it shows the distinctive sea colours of the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, as well as the vivid colours of the rocks and cliffs of Encounter Bay.

AUD$990

Palette knife oil on cavas, 50 x 70 cm

A walking trail runs along the shores of Encounter Bay towards King's Beach, and the views from the trail are spectacular. This painting is landscape orientation in thickly painted rich oil paint, applied using a palette knife, and it shows the distinctive sea colours of the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, as well as the vivid colours of the rocks and cliffs of the shoreline cliffs. Focal point is the little island in Encounter Bay called 'West Island' and the painting also shows the area of King's Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches on the Fleurieu.

AUD$990

Oil on canvas, 102 x 152 cm

Inspiration for this very textured painting is the glorious Second Valley in the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. Painted in impressionist style using palette knife and saturated with colour, just as the place is in real life on a hot and breathless day when the water is crisp and delicious to jump into.

AUD$3910

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 102 x 76W cm

On a hot, hot day in Capri, I was desperate to reach the sea to cool off, and I followed a path down a terrifyingly steep cliff below the Via Tragara until I was just 20 or 30 metres above the crystal water and this spectacular view towards Marina Piccola. The painting is rich in tones of smooth blue and indigo which show the calm swells of the water, and this contrasts with the dryness and rough impasto palette knife work depicting the sheer cliffs of Capri's coastline. Hidden in the foreground textures and colours are a peahen and a hummingbird or sunbird, symbolising the incredible beauty as well as the heat of summer in Capri. It's a tremendously calming work. Ready to hang.

AUD$2190

Palette knife oil on canvas, 61 x 45.7 cm

Next to Brownhill Creek itself in the grounds of Mitcham Memorial Library there are several absolutely beautiful trees, and in one spot there are three big river red gum trees clustered together. Each tree has unique patterns on its trunk, and this highly textured palette knife landscape captures the feel of the sunlight dappling all three trees and highlighting the patterns on their trunks. Three friends, in conversation.

AUD$790

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 76 x 51 cm

A portrait in palette knife work of the lovely old river red gum tree at Brownhill Creek in Adelaide, struck by lightning and entirely hollow, but still standing! Background painting is brushwork in swirling blues that complement the austere greys and blacks and silvers of the burnt tree trunk. Ready to hang and inspire!

AUD$990

Impasto oil on stretched cotton canvas, 70 x 50 cm

In the little town of Orroroo, on the way from Adelaide to the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, there are some very beautiful and old river red gums. This split-stem tree is one of them, and the painting highlights the way that the trunk seems to twist – or at least the patterns in the trunk seem to twist. Painted using palette knife, the painting is thickly textured so that the tree trunks appear almost to emerge from the canvas in their midnight dancing.

AUD$990

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 122 x 61 cm

A palette-knife painting of the giant river red gum that dominates the parking area of Chateau Yaldara at 1847 Wines in Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley. A tiny Jeep Wrangler parked below the tree lends perspective, and the impasto work reveals figures and shapes in the colours and patterns of the trunk.

AUD$2150

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 150 x 100 cm

Palette knife impasto painting of a big sugar gum 'guarding' the little bridge at the start of a private road behind the restaurant at Chateau Yaldara in the Barossa Valley. Shapes and figures emerge or are hidden in the patterns within the trunk, including the definite impression of a redheaded female figure.

AUD$3910

Oil on Canvas, 102 x 76 cm

A dramatic sky in the Barossa Valley in South Australia with deep blue skies behind rainclouds, and the rain-washed vines and ploughed fields in barley green and dark chocolate browns below. The vineyard pictured is alongside the Stonewell cottages above the lake.

AUD$2190

Impasto oil on stretched canvas, 70 x 50 cm

A richly coloured, thick-textured palette knife painting of a huge old river red gum tree beside a billabong in the little settlement of Orroroo in the outback of South Australia. The painting pulses with life and emphasises how powerfully alive the ancient eucalyptus tree is, and the colours reflect the dominant colours of that part of South Australia, en route to the Flinders Ranges.

AUD$990

Impasto Oil on Stretched Canvas, 40.6 x 30.5 cm

This is a little portrait of part of the trunk of a beautiful mountain ash tree – or Eucalyptus regnans – in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens in South Australia. Painted by palette knife, the small portrait is textured with many subtle colours that make up the patterns of the bark of the mountain ash. The background is brushwork in deep blues and charcoals which sets off the ochres and subtle colours of the tree itself. Ready to hang as is but it would look even lovelier in a floating oak frame.

AUD$590

Impasto Oil on Stretched Canvas, 40.6 x 30.5 cm

A gorgeous close up palette-knife study in thick rich oil paint, of the freshly rained-on bark patterns of a river red gum tree trunk on the walking trail at Brownhill Creek in Adelaide, South Australia. The background, executed in brushwork rather than palette knife, is painted in deep blues and charcoals which emphasise the colours in the rained-on bark.

AUD$590

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

Part of a series of palette-knife thickly painted portraits of gum trees in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Old river red gum tree on a walking trail into Wilpena Pound – badly burnt at its base but still standing and growing! Ready to hang.

AUD$1130

Oil on Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

A very close-up portrait of the lower trunk of an old river red gum tree on a walking trail into Wilpena Pound in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia – badly burnt at its base but still standing and growing! The painting is heavily textured as it has been painted exclusively using a palette-knife. Ready to hang.

AUD$590

Oil on Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Part of a series of smaller palette-knife impasto paintings of river red gums in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Each painting shows the dominant pink-red colour of the soil and rocks of the area, as well as the fascinating shapes and patterns of the river red gums, which seem to twist and dance and survive, in hostile environmental conditions. This one shows the wonderful diversity of colours in the bark of the tree against the red-pink soils of the background landscape!

AUD$590

Oil on Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Part of a series of smaller palette-knife impasto paintings of river red gums in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Each painting shows the dominant pink-red colour of the soil and rocks of the area, as well as the fascinating shapes and patterns of the river red gums, which seem to twist and dance and survive, in hostile environmental conditions. This one is especially a dancing tree!

AUD$590

Oil on Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Part of a series of smaller palette-knife impasto paintings of river red gums in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Each painting shows the dominant pink-red colour of the soil and rocks of the area, as well as the fascinating shapes and patterns of the river red gums, which seem to twist and dance and survive, in hostile environmental conditions. This one is especially a twister!

AUD$590

Oil on Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Part of a series of smaller palette-knife impasto paintings of river red gums in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Each painting shows the dominant pink-red colour of the soil and rocks of the area, as well as the fascinating shapes and patterns of the river red gums, which seem to twist and dance and survive, in hostile environmental conditions. This one was on the pathway to some Aboriginal rock paintings and stood out from the rest of the smaller trees around it.

AUD$590

Oil on Canvas, 40.6 x 30.5 cm

Part of a series of smaller palette-knife impasto paintings of river red gums in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Each painting shows the dominant pink-red colour of the soil and rocks of the area, as well as the fascinating shapes and patterns of the river red gums, which seem to twist and dance and survive, in hostile environmental conditions. This one was a survivor of a lightning strike in a dry creek on the trail to a (very dry) waterfall. The lightning strike and fire burned a deep gash right through the tree's base – but it's still growing and alive!

AUD$590

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 40.6 x 30.5 cm

One of a series of smaller palette-knife impasto paintings of river red gums in the Ikara-Flinders National Park in South Australia. Each painting shows the dominant pink-red colour of the soil and rocks of the area, as well as the fascinating shapes and patterns of the river red gums, which seem to twist and dance and survive, in hostile environmental conditions.

AUD$590

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 60 x 30 cm

This is a palette-knife painting of the patterns in the trunk of a surprisingly straight river red gum in the Belair National Park in South Australia. The patterns in the trunk are shown during a ‘Monkey’s Wedding’ when rain falls in sunshine, and suggest many wild species from sunbirds to wombats to cockatoos, while the background is brushwork mixing deep blues and charcoal colours. The painting is a celebration of the beauty of the river red gum and a reminder of how special and wonderful each individual wild species is in the fabric of our Australian environment.

AUD$690

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 102 x 76W cm

Axel Munthe was a Swedish doctor who treated the poor for free, and who saved many lives during an outbreak of the plague in Naples. To protect the birds caught in nets on the cliffs of Capri each spring on their return migration from Africa, he bought the entire cliff next to the villa he'd built and declared it a bird sanctuary. This palette-knife painting shows an unusual view of San Michele’s chapel within the surrounding pines and has a definite Impressionist feel. Hidden inside the scalloped impasto cliffs are several of the animals associated with Axel Munthe and San Michele – dogs, at least one baboon, tortoises and many birds.

AUD$2190

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 76 x 51 cm

Ready to hang. Signed on the front.

The ‘cleft mountain’ of Montagna Spaccata is dizzyingly high, and climbers like to free-climb it – I’ve shown two climbers making the climb when I was sketching and photographing during a month spent in the area. There are steps that go down the middle of the cleft in the mountainside, and a little chapel built on a huge boulder that fell into the gap between the two sides of the cliff during the 1400s. Worked into the impasto, the colours of the cliff hide bird and animal figures.

AUD$990

Palette knife oil on canvas, 30 x 41 cm

This is a smallish palette knife oil painting of the cliffs that are so distinctive of Capri in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy. It’s early morning and there’s sea mist lifting, and only a few boats are out on the opalescent and turquoise waters. It’s the perfect time to motor or sail around the island and appreciate just how spectacular Capri is – no wonder Tiberius made his home there. The painting is textured, colourful and evocative. Ready to hang.

AUD$590

Palette knife Oil on Canvas, 61 x 76.2 cm

The view from a high lochen looking down to Loch Affric in the stunningly beautiful valley that is Glen Affric. Ice-crusted bracken and peat moss underfoot in the foreground, gorgeous Scots pine forest and the main body of the loch in the middle ground, and the snow-capped mountains in the background. It’s a heavily textured, multi-layered painting that is both restful and inviting when viewed in the flesh.Yellow and red ochres of bracken and peat, deep greens of pine and rich cerulean blues of sky behind the swirling clouds bringing more snow are mesmerising and peaceful.

AUD$1290

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 50 x 70 cm

This is a palette knife painting where I've juxtaposed thick textured impasto with super-smooth knife work – for the sky and the water of the River Cannich. The Highlands in winter is a joy to the senses and Glen Cannich is especially so, with huge humped Munro peaks snow-covered in the background and rich orange and burnt sienna sedge grasses in the foreground – and of course the glorious Scots pine on the deep green slope.

AUD$990

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 76 x 51 cm

The contrast in colours in the landscapes of the Scottish Highlands is breathtaking. Glen Cannich is a spectacular valley in the Highlands, accessed via an eight-mile single track from the little town of Cannich and covered in mist one minute and absolute white-sky clear the next, startling the red deer that come right down to the side of the track in the mist. This old Scots pine and the silver birch made such an impression on me because almost all the other vegetation is heather or tufted grass or moss. The painting features much impasto work to convey the cragginess of the rocks that make up the hill, and the heather between the rocky outcrops. The sky is almost smooth brushwork, hinting at the filminess of the clouds coming in and promising more snow on the hilltops. Ready to hang.

AUD$990

Palette Knife Oil on Stretched Canvas, 51 x 61 cm

Scarborough in Cape Town is far down the Cape peninsula, farther south than the village-like suburb of Kommetjie as though you’re heading towards Cape Point. As with all gorgeous beachside places, it changes appearance constantly according to the moods of the weather and the sea. Thickly painted sculptural painting that induces a restful mood.

AUD$990

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 91 x 122 cm

Behind and just to the east of the small town of Itri in Lazio, Italy, there is this old olive grove that looks abandoned or forgotten but is certainly neither of those things. I visited it when a scattering of wild poppies were in bloom against the dry grass and the rose-tinted rocks that are strewn everywhere.

AUD$2950

Palette Knife Oil on Cotton Canvas, 36 x 46 cm

Sunset anywhere along the Adelaide coast is spectacular, and the skies and the sea take on all sorts of colours one can’t predict until they happen. This painting is heavily textured, almost sculptural, and rich in colour. Ready to hang.

AUD$590

Palette Knife Oil on Cotton Canvas, 46 x 36 cm

I’ve become fascinated by the ever-changing colours and topography of Henley Beach where it stretches between Henley and Grange piers. I try to walk it, sketch it and photograph it at low tide when the beach is at its fullest extent, and every day brings something very different. On this day the tide was almost at its lowest ebb and long ponds of water were left trapped under a deeply cobalt sky with gathering storm clouds which were reflected in the shallow pools left behind by the retreating tide. Ready to hang.

AUD$590

Palette Knife Oil on Cotton Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Sunsets anywhere along the Adelaide coast are special, and the skies and the sea take on all sorts of colours one can’t predict until they happen. In this scene the seagrass wrack and seagulls help to recreate the restful peace of walking along the shoreline as day turns into evening. Ready to hang.

AUD$590

Impasto oil on cotton canvas, 50.8 x 76.2 cm

Part of the Henley Beach palette-knife impasto series. Henley sunsets are simply stunning, and they vary completely from one sunset to the next. This sky on this particular evening was a moving and fluid orchestra of colour, and I have used a brush to create the underpainted colour of the sky, then palette knife impasto with lots of fluid and vibrant colour to capture the clouds as they widen out of the frame. I’ve tried to capture the moment and so the details of the pier and the people in the sea are a palette knife impression of the fleeting instant, and the colour of the sea also – expressionist and emotional rather than realist or rational.

AUD$990