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

153 × 101 cm

156 × 104 cm Framed in Floating Oak

$4650

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 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. See if you can find the lizards, the elephants, the almost-invisible nudes, the turtles, the kangaroos, the osprey, and the other just-glimpsed, half-imagined shapes that the tree's patterns suggest.

$5800. Available at 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 … you’ll think I’m making it up until you see them too.

$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

This is a sister painting to ‘Waterside Memories’ and is inspired by a second huge Yellow-Wood tree planted in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens in the 1800s. The markings on the trunk of the Yellow-Wood brought to mind in the imagination of the artist a celebratory, party-like get-together in the woodlands or forests next to a river or lake. There are so many dancing forms – several joyous nudes approaching the water, joined by friendly forest creatures and water-loving birds galore, and all gathering under a panoply of stars as a cyan and cerulean background.

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

Oil on Canvas, 150 cm x 100 cm

‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ is 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

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.

$2650

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.

Available at Artworx, Goolwa

$4650

Palette knife oil on canvas, 91.4 x 45.7 cm

A thickly textured palette knife painting of the trunk of an old river red gum in the town of Tanunda in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, with the thick oil paint seeming to show the shapes of creatures in the patterns of the tree. Worked into the thick oils are strands of olive colour, and the sides of the stretched painting are also coloured a lighter shade of olive. The background sky is rendered in brushwork and is Impressionist in style, almost like some of Van Gogh's skies, showing radiating patterns of whorling energy. Calming and uplifting. Ready to hang, framed in floating oak.

$1490

Available at Artworx Gallery, Goolwa, SA

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: there are several 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 – she is there, if you’ll search.

$4650. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

Oil on Canvas, 150 cm x 100 cm

‘In the Flow’ is part of a series of explorations in different colours and at different times of the gorgeous markings on the lower trunk of a huge river red gum tree on the Oval of Scotch College in Torrens Park. Winsor and ultramarine violet patterns on a background of cobalt turquoise tones which are interspersed with flashes of winsor yellow create scenes where creatures and humans make flickering appearances: turtles, koalas, kangaroos, cockatoos, emus, a leafy sea dragon, a dingo, platypuses, and more. As well as the scribbly worm that leaves its mark on the gums.

$4650. Available at Ex Animo Art Gallery, Adelaide

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. Owl’s view is best. He’s watching crake, and the lost labrador who jumped into the lake covered in green algae, the buffalo, the ostrich and the curious emu, the galah looking disinterested, and the confused almost-man wondering if he should escape his box. Owl’s not confused. The colours and markings on the trunks of trees tell us stories – it’s a joy to read them.

$4650

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 creatures and human forms in a celebration of ongoing being – it remains a habitat for life – which the artist has deliberately kept as enigmatic as the striations and whorls in the tree trunk.

AU$2900

Oil on Canvas 135 x 200 cm

This is the second big abstract inspired by the forms and shapes in the patterns on the trunk of a particular old sugar gum tree in Angas Gardens in North Adelaide, South Australia. 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 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

135 x 200 cm, Oil on Canvas

This is a big abstract in oils inspired by the number and intensity of the forms and shapes discernible in the patterns on the trunk of an old sugar gum tree in Angas Gardens in North Adelaide, South Australia. 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 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 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 – eucalyptus cladocalyx – in urban Adelaide, South Australia 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. Ready to hang.

$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 seems to show 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

Oil on Canvas, 183 x 122 cm

In Angas Gardens in Adelaide, where War Memorial Drive meets King William Road, there is a stately old sugar gum, a species that is endemic to the South Australia region. The patterns in the bark are striking and seem to hint at all manner of 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. Ready to hang.

$5800

Oil on Canvas, 152 x 102 cm

Sugar gums, endemic to the south coast of Australia, display the most fascinating patterns in their bark as the trees age. This painting of the trunk of a mature tree in Adelaide in South Australia 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 all manner of 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. Ready to hang.

$4650

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 in the tree providing inspiration for the painting there are numerous lines and patterns suggesting human and animal forms, some of which inspired the title – look carefully and allow your imagination free rein to discern them, including the Nativity scene near the top of the painting.

AU$2900

Oil on Stretched Canvas 152 x 101cm

A subtle abstracted nude study with a calming colour palette, overlaid onto a canvas patterned according to the bark patterns of a Scots pine tree.

Available at Artworx, Goolwa

$4650

Oil on Stretched Canvas 152 x 101cm

A bold abstracted nude study of a woman facing the viewer, whom she appears to be contemplating and sizing up, rather than the other way round. The background is a riot of colour, with patterns inspired by the bark patterns of a particular plane tree in Adelaide, and the canvas is peopled with numerous creatures, most of which are mere suggestions that the viewer must complete in the studio of their own imaginations.

Available at Artworx, Goolwa

$4650

Oil on Canvas, 153 x 91 cm

The bark-skin of a silver birch is always beautiful, and this tree in the weather extremes of the Scottish Highlands was moss-covered and peeling, especially where the trunk had been scraped or gnawed during early growth. Beneath the peeling long rolls of bark, various images are hidden – in the lower left, an elephant keeps to the shadows, and throughout the canvas animal or bird faces peek out, while the peeling rolls themselves are reminiscent of the legs on the flag of the Isle of Man. I have thought of two alternative titles: either Shy Elephant rather than Manx Elephant, or Highland Fling. Ready to hang.

$4250

Oil on Canvas, 92 × 61 cm

This painting ,in all manner of blues and burnt siennas of varying tones, is an abstracted ‘portrait’ of the base of a gigantic monkeypuzzle tree – I originally titled it ‘Blake’s Tiger’ because I could see or feel the energy of a tiger in the tree and in the whirling energy of the painting. After several revisits because I felt it needed something, I love it and it is renamed. It reminds the viewer immediately of coral and the vibrant life of a living coral reef.

$2250