Discoveries...

Ella was away from the studio on a course for her 'other job' at the Whitaker Museum today, but she left me a text about news of some sales from the exhibition in York, and the discovery of some rather special oil studies.These are three of the 10 paintings, each about 60 x 50 cms in size:

In the workroom at Dave's studio there's a mezzanine area that we haven't looked at since moving back in after the building work. Ella has now completed cataloguing work on the top floor, but hasn't yet looked at this mezzanine. It contains a few dozen shaped canvases from the Byzantium series, and a some paper-mache works from the 60s. But there's also about 15 red plastic cases, and she has started to open them one by one - these pieces are from the second box.  

According to McGee

An enjoyable opening yesterday at the According to McGee Gallery in a rather cold York. 

From the left - Kay Kennedy, Ella Cole and Dave's grandson Tobias.

Greg McGee (left) discussing Dave's 'The Hat of Candles'.

Hanging the show

Yesterday was the day for hanging Dave's work in the According to McGee Gallery in York in readiness for Saturdays opening of the Transitions exhibition. 

Just as with last years 'Dave Pearson: Colourist' show at the gallery, Graham Breakwell took the train to York from Shrewsbury and was a big help in hanging the paintings. This year, with less heavy framed pieces, it was an easier job than in 2014, although I had been anxious as to how the work would look together. This was probably because the pieces were not drawn from one of Dave's series of works, with their natural coherence, but from a transitional period in which he was experimenting both with subject matter and oil paint technique. In fact I went away feeling very happy about the exhibition, in which both large and smaller pieces seemed to hang together naturally, with an unexpected coherence and conviction.

Transitions

This week we'll be hanging a new exhibition of Dave's paintings at the According to McGee Gallery in York. The gallery is opposite Clifford's Tower, so very close to the centre of town, at 8 Tower Street YO1 9SA. It opens this Saturday and will remain open for three weeks, closing on Sunday 12th April. 

The exhibition will show 30 or so oil paintings and drawings that look at the period in the mid-1980s when Dave was moving away from an extensive series of work inspired by English Calendar Customs, and particularly the Abbots Bromley Horned Dance. During this period of 5 or more years he began to explore different painterly approaches, and also reconnected with conventional forms of painting - still lives, interiors and self-portraiture.

The exhibition mainly focuses on his work in oils and his experiments with brushwork and texture, and which eventually led to his most ambitious and wildly epic series of work - 'Byzantium' and 'Journey to Byzantium', both based on W.B.Yeats' poem.

A Hospital Series

Ella Cole is usually to be found, Mondays and Tuesdays, at Dave's old studio in Haslingden, where she is painstakingly putting together a catalogue of his work. On Tuesdays I try and spend a couple hours with her. Cataloguing the collection started in 2009, shortly after Dave's death, and I managed to catalogue about 1500 pieces over three or four years. In 2011 the Trust asked Ella to continue this work in a more methodical way. She started on the top floor, of three (plus a cellar), and has nearly completed cataloguing all the work on that floor - currently there are over 8,500 pieces in the catalogue. 

The four gouache and ink drawings above were discovered in an folder of work, and they appear to be studies for a commission Dave had, probably from Pete Senior of Hospital Arts. They're exceptionally beautiful and there were about 40 such paintings, each about 40cms x 30cms is size, 

A new setting

Rawtenstall's Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery has reopened this weekend after a short closure during which they renovated the downstairs bar restaurant along with the corridors and stairwell. It now looks really stunning - and some well chosen Dave Pearson pieces , secondary panels from his 'Byzantium' series, really truly wonderful in this setting, offset by the new dark grey decor of the walls. 

Go along to the Whitaker for a great meal - and to see a group of Dave's larger pieces of work in a new setting.

Selecting work

Today was spent selecting paintings for the forthcoming 'Transitions' exhibition in York. It looks like being largely a fascinating mix of rarely-seen oil paintings from the period in the late 1980s when Dave was working towards the two epic 'Byzantium' series. 

Jackie Taylor and Julian Williams from the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery also called by and selected a number of pieces from 'Byzantium' to include in the refurbished Whitaker, which re-opens this coming Saturday.

'Transitions' opens at the 'According to McGee' Gallery, 8 Tower St, York, North Yorkshire YO1 9SA on Saturday 21st March and closes Sunday 12th April 2015.

The newly refurbished Whitaker in Whitaker Park, Haslingden Road, Rawtenstall, Lancashire BB4 6RE reopens Saturday, 14th February 2015.