Patrick John Pearson

Oil on Canvas, 150 x 100 cm

An energetic and joyful abstracted ‘portrait’ of the bark of a river red gum at Brownhill Creek Trail in Adelaide. Shapes and forms of creatures suggested by the patterns of the bark reveal four human female forms, iconic Australian animal species such as Tasmanian tigers, dingoes, platypus, kangaroos and koalas, as well as butterflies and countless birds – and animals from farther afield.

$4650

Oil on Canvas

152 × 101 cm

155 × 104 cm Framed in Floating Oak

Inspired by a river red gum alongside the creek on Currency Creek Trail. Its colours are striking but still subtle, and there are many little creatures and birds hidden away in the painting.

$4650

Oil on Canvas, 150 cm x 100 cm

A delightful exploration of the marks and patterns on a big river red gum tree in Unley Park, using shades of pale Naples yellow, raw sienna, and infusions of burnt sienna and olive green. There is a wonderful energy in the artwork, and a host of forms to discover, though they are hinted at rather than explicitly revealed: curlews, crows, albatrosses, kangaroos, quolls, platypuses, potoroos, storks – ah, and some human forms, dancing while bathed in moonlight.

$4650. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

Oil on Canvas, 120 cm x 180 cm

‘Spring Song’ is a light and bright interpretation of the life marks on a portion of the trunk of a magnificent sugar gum in Angas Gardens in North Adelaide. Deep cobalt blues alongside rich burnt sienna shimmers into a pearly almost-white, to reveal human, animal and bird forms delighting in the return of Spring after the depths of Winter. Lizards, elephants, almost-invisible nudes, turtles, kangaroos, an osprey.

Just sold by Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

Oil on Canvas, 120 cm x 180 cm

‘Winter Song’ is a dynamic and flowing interpretation of the bark patterns in the trunk of a large river red gum in Mitcham. Rich pearlescent white cascades like ice flow across seams of dark raw umber, and meets spills of ultramarine blue and turquoise green, with flares in tones of crimson alizarin, hinting at the figures in the trunk’s markings: the warm nude, the cool nude, the monitor lizard, the duck, the platypus, the tadpole, the dingo, the antelope, the buffalo, the humpback whales, the magpie, the coot, the frog, the bumblebee, the turtles, the bowerbird.

$5800. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

Oil on Canvas, 120 × 180 cm, framed in floating oak

‘Waterside Memories’ is inspired by the markings and bark patterns in the trunk of an old Yellow-Wood tree in the Adelaide Botanical Garden, and is a deeply layered and highly evocative work, featuring almost hidden female and animal forms – four nude human forms and hints of turtles and potoroos and magpies and Tasmanian tigers and kangaroos and wallabies and sea-dragons, with lots of bird figures hidden in the vertical washes of oil colour that could be water-reeds embracing the creatures. Sensuous and dreamlike and celebrating life.

$5800

Oil on Canvas, 120 × 180 cm, framed in Floating Oak

Inspired by a huge Yellow-Wood tree planted in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens in the 1800s. The painting is a gathering, in motion.

Sky-blue fields fall in vertical rhythm, and within them life assembles — birds, deer, human forms — woven together like reeds along a riverbank. Nothing stands alone. Everything leans toward connection.

There is joy here, but it is quiet. A shared presence. A return.

At 120 x 180cm, Riverside Reunion is immersive and dynamic — a statement work that carries both movement and harmony. For collectors drawn to layered storytelling, symbolic depth and the living dialogue between species and place.

$5800. Available to view at Ex Animo Art Gallery.

Oil on Canvas, 150 cm x 100 cm

‘In the Flow’ interprets the gorgeous markings on the lower trunk of a huge river red gum tree on the Oval of Scotch College in Torrens Park. It’s a quiet surrender to movement.

Cool washes of indigo and misted green fall in vertical rhythm — like reeds, rain, memory. Within the current, life gathers: birds suspended mid-flight, creatures drifting through depth, human forms woven into the same stream.

Nothing is fixed. Everything belongs to the flow.

At 150 x 100cm, this work carries a meditative presence — calm yet alive, expansive yet intimate. A painting that settles a space while inviting continued discovery.

$4650. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

Oil on Canvas, 100 cm x 150 cm

‘Elephant and Giraffe’ is an abstract interpretation of the markings on the trunk of a river red gum tree in Millswood near the dog-walking park, and in a calmly sensuous mix of turquoise cool and burnt sienna warm tones it presents a feast for the investigative eye: koalas, ravens, gulls and albatrosses, human nudes, turtles, as well as at least one elephant and giraffe. And if you find the elephant and giraffe, take the challenge one step further and try to find a second giraffe.

$4650. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

Oil on Canvas 135 x 200 cm

Inspired by the forms and shapes in the patterns on the trunk of a particular old sugar gum tree in North Adelaide. As Leonardo da Vinci pointed out, the human. brain on spending some time contemplating patterns in clouds or rock faces or treebark automatically begins to make sense of each pattern, sorting them into shapes that relate to the human experience of the natural world. This sugar gum doesn’t disappoint.

$6,900

Oil on Canvas in Floating Oak Frame, 122 cm x 122 cm canvas size

‘Owl’s View of the Wood’ interprets the colours and markings in the trunk of an old plane tree in London. Owl shouldn’t be too hard to find – he’s just in front of turtle, and turtle is just in front of wombat, though our view of wombat is being crowded by cockerel…. The colours and markings on the trunks of trees tell us stories – it’s a joy to read them.

$4650

135 x 200 cm, Oil on Canvas

Inspired by the number and intensity of forms and shapes discernible in the patterns on the trunk of an old sugar gum tree in Angas Gardens in North Adelaide. This sugar gum delivers many large or smaller forms that make sense to the sensitive viewer who looks more deeply into the mark-making of the painting.

$6,900

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

Sugar gums display the most fascinating patterns in their bark as the trees age. This painting 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 other 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.

$4650

Oil on Canvas, 183 x 122 cm

In Angas Gardens in Adelaide there is a stately old sugar gum. The patterns in the bark are striking and seem to hint at 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.

$5800

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.

$2450

Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm

One of the oldest sugar gum trees in urban Adelaide 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.

$1500

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 conjures an eye in the tree, watching the viewer.

$2250

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.

$2250. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

140 x 70 cm, Oil on Canvas

An abstracted portrait of the patterns in the trunk of an old blue gum tree in the Parklands of Adelaide that has aged and died and has begun to lose surface bark in long flakes. Its ancient patterns are glorious and willowy and suggest several creature and human forms in a celebration of ongoing being .

AU$2900

70 x 140 cm, Oil on Canvas

A brightly toned and energising abstract inspired by the patterns in paperbark trees – Melaleucas. Paperbark trees have the most astounding swirls and whorls and flowing or swelling lines and marks upon their fascinating trunks and even their branches, and there are numerous lines and patterns suggesting human and animal forms,. Allow your imagination free rein to discern them, including the Nativity scene near the top of the painting.

AU$2900

Oil on Canvas, 92 × 61 cm

This painting ,in all manner of blues and burnt siennas, is an abstracted ‘portrait’ of the base of a gigantic monkeypuzzle tree. It reminds me of coral and the vibrant life of a living coral reef.

$2250

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 91 cm

A vertical force. Inspired by an ancient moss-covered silver birch tree in the Scottish Highlands.

Animal, human, instinct — layered into one rising form. The elephant is present, but not alone. Eyes watch. Wings cut through colour. Fragments of landscape and spirit collide and assemble.

This is not a portrait of a creature.
It is a gathering of energies.

Bold planes of crimson, jade, ochre and electric blue create tension and movement — a contemporary totem built from memory, myth and the wild interior world.

At 152 x 91cm, Totem commands space with unapologetic presence. A statement work for collectors drawn to symbolism, strength and narrative density — a piece that anchors a room and continues to reveal itself over time.

$4250