Dave Pearson
  • About
    • Dave Pearson: an overview
    • Obituary: The Guardian
    • The Dave Pearson Studio
    • Exhibition notes
    • Dave Pearson and the Creative Daimon
  • Work
    • Early work
    • Van Gogh work
    • Revelations
    • English Customs
    • Calendar Customs
    • In the 7 Woods
    • Self-portraits
    • Autobiographical paintings
    • Byzantium
    • The Bestiary series
    • Late works 1
    • Late works 2
  • News
  • Media
  • Sales

DAVE PEARSON

Dave Pearson (1937-2008) was a London born artist who spent most of his working life in Rossendale, Lancashire.

The writer and critic Edward Lucie-Smith wrote:“It’s not often nowadays that a really major artist slips through the net. In Dave Pearson’s case the fact is the more surprising since his major enterprises… were invariably both extremely ambitious and not at all difficult for ordinary spectators to construe and empathize with.”

THE DAVE PEARSON STUDIO

54 Manchester Rd Haslingden Rossendale Lancashire BB4 5TE UK

Van Gogh work

Constructions, Drawings, Paintings, Prints

In the mid-1960s Dave Pearson was beginning work lecturing on the Foundation Course of Manchester School of Art. He moved to Haslingden, starting work inspired by the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh. This was inspired by seeing Vincente Minelli’s film ‘Lust for Life’, but also finding a copy of ‘the Symbolic Language of Vincent Van Gogh’ by H.R. Graetz. Pearson threw himself into the subject and worked in a wide range of techniques, from large scale models in papier-mâché of Van Gogh’s key works such as ‘The Bedroom’, through etchings, dry-points, collages, drawings and paintings, and even performance pieces (with Bob Frith) and inflatables.
Within this subject matter Pearson found a staggering number of ways to explore the Van Gogh material. But by 1970 the work had tended to become more painterly and more and more of the output, especially the prints, were based on observation of Pearson’s local landscape around Haslingden, which became the setting for many of Van Gogh’s characters and motifs.

Other Projects

Self-portraits

Autobiographical paintings

Late works 1

In the 7 Woods

The Bestiary series

Revelations

Late works 2

Calendar Customs

Byzantium

English Customs

Early work