Art Quarterly

Throughout 2018 I was talking with the Art Fund about donating a small collection of work by Dave Pearson to a museum or art gallery. The series of drawings were being gifted by a collector who wished to remain anonymous. They were from a series of beautiful graphite drawings that Dave called 'In The Seven Woods', and they were inspired by the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. Here's a selection of the work:

Eventually the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), based at Reading University, accepted the gift, and they are now on display there. 

Today I found a package sent to me from the Art Fund that included a copy of the Art Quarterly which contained this short piece on the gift: 

It's good to see Dave's work getting publicity in this way, and interesting that these pieces have ended up in a collection dedicated to the 'life and traditions of the English countryside' which Dave immersed himself in the mid-1970s and 80s when he produced his "Calendar Customs' and 'In The Seven Woods' series.

An interesting cache...

Before Ella can entirely complete the cataloguing process in the first room, there remains one folder of work. Ella had some doubts whether the work was by Dave so we had a good look at the contents. The first sheets were pastels and oil pastels by his mother, Lilian, that had been entered for the 'Hackney Annual Art Exhibition', and with gold date stickers for 1982 and 1983.

But further in we came to some unmistakeable Dave Pearson's - not in great condition, it has to be admitted. 

There were half a dozen or so oil pastels on canvas, from the 'Calendar Customs' series, and these needed removing from their deteriorating mounts and will, ultimately, require cleaning. There were also about 15 larger scratched card and black pastel drawings from 'In The Seven Woods', which will need fixing. All of course can now be catalogued.

Probably the nicest pieces were six small coloured drawings, again from 'Calendar Customs'. I'm planning to have these framed - as small paintings by Dave all rare items.