Patrick John Pearson

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 122 x 198 cm

This big painting is of a dramatic natural rock arch looking down upon the wonderfully coloured seawater of Capri. Trees manage to cling to the sides of the steep rock walls and even grow on the offshore stack seen through the window created by the arch, and as with many of my palette knife paintings, there are hints of animals and birds hidden in the worked colours of the rock and foreground branches and middle ground trees. The arch is huge and high, and even rather big boats below look like miniaturised toys. Ready to hang.

AUD$5910

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 91 x 152 cm

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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

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.

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Oil on Canvas 198 x 152 cm

Daphne was the nymph who, pursued by Apollo, was transformed into a tree by the goddess Gaia or Daphne’s sea-god father, depending on which legend one hears. She turned into a laurel tree, but here I have her as the focus of the bark-portrait of an old olive tree in the hills above the town of Itri, in the Lazio region of Italy. As with most of the Treebark paintings, the portrait hides or reveals many other figures, faces and creatures in the bark. Ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

The painting is a treebark close-up ‘portrait’ of a white poplar tree next to the Colonel William Light Monument in Adelaide, South Australia. People go to see the monument, which is as they should – but the true star of the little park area there is the giant white poplar. The tree is absolutely gorgeous, speckled and spotted and gnarled, and the bark generates all sorts of images in its patterns – anteaters, bilbies, birds. Horses, toads, crocodiles, seahorses – Floki’s tree is a frenzy of life and an ode to living things everywhere. Ready to hang.

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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.

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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! Framed in floating oak frame and ready to hang.

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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! Framed in floating oak frame and ready to hang.

AUD$990 Available for viewing at Artworx Gallery, Goolwa, SA

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.

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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?

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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 in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. 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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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180 x 120 cm, Oil on Canvas

An abstracted portrait of a Mountain Ash Eucalyptus tree that continues to fascinate the artist, with its creamy and almost unmarked bark higher up the trunk and then the scores and patterns and deeper colours of the base of the tree, suggesting all manner of shapes of bird and animal as well as human female figures.

Oil on Canvas, 100 x 150cm

Abstracted 'portratit' of the patterns in a large river red gum tree near Adelaide in South Australia, with all sorts of tiny creatures and also human shapes are discernible within the markings on the tree's bark.

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180 x 120 cm, Oil on Canvas

An abstracted portrait of a magnificent old river red gum in the grounds of Mitcham Primary in Adelaide, South Australia, which evidences the marks and patterns of a long life. Many of the patterns suggest the outlines of birds and animals and human forms, and the artist has merely highlighted these forms that the human mind automatically begins to process when standing for some time in front of the huge old tree.

Impasto Oil on Canvas, 122 x 91 cm

Korcula is an island of so many beaches I lost count. Maja Bay is special – right at the end of a long and stony unpaved track, down a rocky path with the wonderful sound of cicadas ringing loudly in the sunshine, and with the clearest, most crystal water I have seen anywhere. It’s a nudist beach that is well hidden and spectacularly lovely. I have used palette knife impasto for the rocks that drop so steeply into the water, and to show the texture of the trees, mainly pines, hugging the cliffside, and then much more considered brushwork for the foreground stones, many of which are underwater, and for the greens and blues of the water.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 40 x 40 cm

A close up view of the famous Obelisk in Robe, South Australia, showing the jagged and craggy outcrop on which the structure rests, with thick impasto palette knife strokes evoking the rough rocks around the landmark.

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Palette knife oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm

A walking trail runs along the shores of Encounter Bay towards King's Beach, and the views from the trail are spectacular. 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 the shoreline cliffs.

SOLD

Oil on Canvas 102 x 152cm

SOLD AU$3910

Oil on Stretched Canvas 120 x 180cm

'Arrivals and Departures (River Red Gum)' is the artist's interpretation of the patterns and marks on the trunk of a local river red gum. The bark patterns hide - or reveal, on close inspection, around 40 creatures. There are kangaroos of course, and birds galore, but also a Tasmanian tiger (or part of it as it departs) and turtles and a platypus – and the face of a dragon. See how many of the 40 you can find. The painting itself is calming and relaxing – even as it is also a comment on the intersection and interdependence of human and animal worlds.

SOLD

Oil on Canvas, 102 x 152cm

AU$3910

Oil on canvas, 61 x 91 cm

A mid-sized canvas, highly textured, inspired by 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, the painting captures the feeling and beauty of this favourite spot.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 30 x 41 cm

This is a small palette knife oil painting of the river and loch in Glen Affric, an area of great beauty that holds a particular fascination for me. The viewpoint is from the very edge of Loch Affric, so the mountains look even more immense than usual, and they’re partly reflected in the waters of the loch – together with the clouds gathering for another shower of snow. The painting is highly textured, pure in colour and blissfully peaceful.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 91 x 122 cm

Kayaking from Dubrovnik in Croatia around a nearby island, the white walls and mesmerisingly beautiful blue dome of this villa on the way back caught my attention – it was apparently built by a rich merchant for his mistress, and the blue roof tiles of the dome needed to match her blue eyes. It’s an absolute delight to the senses, with the colours being complemented by the lapping of the deep blue water against the rocks below the villa walls. I have used heavy impasto to capture the essence of the rocks of the cliff and the palms and the pines, as well as the clouds that were rolling in before a thundershower, and then finer brushwork for the sea-entrance to Dubrovnik old town with its terracotta roof tiles.

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Oil on Canvas, 100 x 150 cm

The painting is an abstract portrait inspired by an old and partially burnt olive tree-stump in the hills above Itri in Italy, which was reworked and refashioned in the artist's mind so that its looping whorls and whirling patterns are emphasised and form part of an artistic ode in oil paint to motherhood – symbols of motherhood, both human and animal, on land and at sea, abound. The overall effect on the viewer is a deep sense of exhilaration and optimism. Stretched canvas, ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

Winner of the Mark Butler Art Awards 2021 in the ‘Established Artist’ category. This abstract portrait of the patterns on the trunk of a very large and mature paper mulberry tree in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens in South Australia shows a tree with distinctive and impressive bark, but also flowers and heavy fruit. The paper mulberry was used by ancient Austronesians to make barkcloth – and often became the ‘canvas’ for decorated paintings, so it is fitting that this portrait is reminiscent of both Eastern and Islander art. Even many of the animals the bark patterns hint at seem to be animals that accompanied the Austronesians as they expanded from island to island in the Pacific. A very fluid, dynamic, energetic painting , reflecting the swirling bark patterns of the tree’s trunk, and painted in optimistic uplifting colours. Ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas, 91 x 61 cm

An abstracted close-up portrait of the bark of a river red gum at Currency Creek Waterfall Trail near Middleton in South Australia. Shapes and forms of creatures 'hidden' in the bark patterns – or suggested by the patterns of the bark – are revealed in the painting. Ready to hang.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 122 x 198 cm

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 61 x 61 cm

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 30.5 x 40.6 cm

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Oil on Canvas, 183 x 152 cm

This big painting was inspired by the old poplar tree located at The Grounds, a popular eating and meeting place in Alexandria in Sydney, Australia. The bark patterns are bold and intricate and whole neighbourhoods of figures are separated by long rivers of indigo grooves, shallow but fascinating in how they highlight protrusions and knots and fault-lines in the trunk. Ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas, 102 x 76 cm

'Turtles All The Way Down' is a richly patterned and textured work, immediately reminding the viewer of our heritage of cave art. The tree that inspired it is a plane tree in London that has such a distinctive bark, and such vivid colours, that it reminded me of the best cave paintings of Lascaux. It represents a tapestry of Creation, and the myth that the world rests on the back of a giant turtle, and that turtle rests on the back of another, and so on forever. There are so many animals and birds and nudes that they are hard to count. Ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas, 102 x 76 cm

There are many streets in London that are lined with plane trees, and this tree in Parsons Green has a delightfully patterned bark. It's full of red ochres and burnt siennas and rich greens as well as the palest yellows and violets, and was irresistible to paint. The canvas has been heavily overpainted so that it is rough and textural and gnarly, just like the bark of the tree which inspired it – and it is chock-full of animals and birds, including a meerkat at a typewriter.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 76 x 102 cm

I spent almost a week wild camping alone in Glen Affric in winter, next to a small frozen lochan above Loch Affric itself, and it was a glorious place to be and in which to reflect. I saw no other humans at all, and made sure that when I left there were no signs I'd ever been there. This painting is mainly executed with palette knife, and is therefore highly textured, and I've loosened the connection to realism so that the scene feels almost archetypical and essential. SItting in front of it is immensely relaxing and peaceful.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 76.2 x 76.2 cm

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 40.6 x 30.5 cm

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Oil on Canvas, 100 x 100 cm

The painting is an abstracted portrait of a big sugar gum eucalyptus on South Terrace in Adelaide, South Australia. The bark patterns on the tree trunk seemed vaguely to suggest monitor lizards and iguanas and chameleons as well as bird-like shapes so the final painting has all these plus dingoes, a wallaby or kangaroo with a joey in its pouch, a turtle and several ripe quandong fruits. Ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas, 152 x 92 cm

The painting is a treebark close-up ‘portrait’ of a paperbark tree in Sydney, and I’ve imagined in the bark pattern the goddess Salacia. In Roman mythology, Salacia was the consort of Neptune, and was worshipped as the goddess of salt water – the Roman equivalent of the Greek Amphitrite, consort of Poseidon. She’s the mother of Triton, and associated with dolphins and sea-horses and all sorts of sea creatures, which in this painting are hidden in the folds of the tree’s bark – as well as other symbols of fertility and burgeoning life. Ready to hang.

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Oil on Canvas 70 x 50 cm

In the Adelaide Botanic Gardens in South Australia there’s a large and healthy coral tree – an Erythrina (meaning ‘red’ because most coral trees have red flowers). Where its trunk and curving branches have developed hollows and holes, parrots and lorikeets have set up home, adding yet more colour to what is already a stunningly beautiful sight. The chunky knots and knobbles upon white-blue smoothness that is the particular loveliness of coral trees’ bark made me think of eyes looking out from something velvety – peacock eyes. Ready to hang.

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Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 46 x 36 cm

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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 has been split and burnt by lightning, but it's growing nevertheless! Ready to hang.

SOLD

Palette Knife Oil on Canvas, 36 x 46 cm

SOLD