A discovery

Interesting - following a link on BBC Your Paintings website to the Public Catalogue Foundation (click here for your own link) I discovered three paintings by Dave Pearson in the University of Liverpool collection - and a link to a current exhibition, A Matter of Taste at the University of Liverpool where an, excellent, untitled painting by Dave has been selected for inclusion by Bryan Biggs, Director  of the Bluecoats Gallery in Liverpool (below). 

'To Byzantium' online

You can now watch the whole of Derek Smith's film about Dave Pearson free on-line. Go to :

http://communitychannel.mediatrust.org/video/-8E5Ne2wei8/

This is available through The Community Channel. Their own description of the film is:

Artist Dave Pearson lived in Rossendale for forty years but few people would know about the extraordinary world he created in their midst. When he died, Dave Pearson’s friends and family opened up his studio and discovered his life’s work: twenty thousand drawings, prints and paintings. Pearson had shunned publicity and had sold very little work, the building around him was disintegrating.

This film is about the efforts of a small group of dedicated people to rescue the work of Britain’s best, least known painter and present it to a new audience. The film explores what made Pearson so special as an artist but most importantly it documents the epic task involved in bringing Pearson’s work back to life and in restoring his once derelict working space. The studio is now ready to become a focus for art in Rossendale Valley and beyond. Pearson, an unknown artist, is now poised and ready to enter the pantheon of British art.

A week is a long time

This has been an eventful week for the Trust.

First, Chris Pearson told me on Thursday that our solicitor telephoned to say that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have closed the files on our case about the Death Duty on Dave's estate. This had been hanging over us for well over a year and, although I felt sure that we had done everything correctly, it meant all our financial transactions had a deeply worrying shadow hanging over them. Chris, in particular, had been very affected - unable to get work done on the house where he and Dave had lived because of the fear of a potentially enormous tax bill. 

Another interesting development was a three way discussion between Sergei Reviakin, Edward Lucie-Smith and Margaret Mytton comparing some of Dave's work from the 1990s with Andre Masson and Pavel Filonov. Edward had started this off on his visit commenting how some of the works we showed him reminded him of Masson.... 

Animals - Pavel Filonov

Interior - Dave Pearson

Tower - Andre Masson

Rock Pool - Dave Pearson

Finally last night To Byzantium was shown on the Community Channel at 10pm. Apparently it's being shown again tomorrow (Sunday) at 1.30 pm and Wednesday 16th at 10.00pm. 

A lot to be grateful for. 

Visitors, and colour

Chris, Margaret and I have spent most of the weekend at Dave Pearson's Studio in Haslingden, showing Dave's work to Edward Lucie-Smith; and a Russian collector, Sergei Reviakin - who is a friend of Edwards. 

This has been a stimulating meeting for the members of the Trust. Wonderful for us to hear our guests sharing our enthusiasm for these unseen and largely unknown works, but also there's a tremendous amount for us to learn about the London art market - quite apart from the international one. Edward and Sergei have been very generous in giving us advice on these things, and left us with lots to consider and decide on before we move on to the next stage, including the London exhibition, opening late April 2012, in Bermondsey.

Among a wide-ranging discussion, we talk of the history of the white planters in the West Indies and the influence of Lancashire (and cricket) in the independence movement, Byzantine architecture, animation, and, of course, lots about the London art scene. We talk of the art and impact of using colour, sadly often neglected by painters these days and perhaps more to be found in the work of textile and fabric artists. Edward talks enthusiastically about Dave's rare sense of colour...