Long time; no see...

It's been ten months since my last blog, and eight of those we've been under lockdown due to the pandemic.   

Inevitably, things have slowed right down during this period. The studio in Haslingden has had to close its doors, although I've been working on and off in tidying the collection; trying to make more space; and hanging a new (sadly almost totally unseen) exhibition of some of Dave's small oil paintings. 

Sales have inevitably dropped right away, although interest has picked up again these past few weeks, which has been encouraging.

The annual Rossendale Art Trail for 2020 was cancelled because of the pandemic, and as a second-best we've created a new website - Rossendale Art Trail Online - at rossendalearttrail.org, which I spent much of the late summer designing. The Dave Pearson Studio features as an exhibition venue in its listings, although Dave Pearson is not included as it's very much a site for practicing artists. 

Rossendale Art Trail 2019

We're busy preparing for the local Art Trail/Open Studios for the weekend of October 5th and 6th. 

It's been a quiet couple months, as it usually is over summer, but we're launching the Autumn and Winter season at Dave Pearson's Studio with an exciting new show. It consists of previously unseen paintings that we've had framed especially for the Art Trail. Our good friend (and talented painter himself) Paddy Campbell is framing 25 oil paintings, and next week we'll be hanging them. 

If you can't make the weekend, the show will stay up over the Winter, and it's easy to phone or email us to make an appointment. We'll also put the pieces up on our shop - dspearsonshop.co.uk - and they can all be bought online. 

RAT 2018

Last weekend was the annual local open studios event - Rossendale Art Trail, or RAT for short. We took part as ever (it would be hard not to as I'm the coordinator). This year our sister organisation, Apna Rossendale, also offered a very special exhibition. The Slough based artist Shamina Haq, who not only exhibited a number of her geometric pieces but was present throughout, giving demonstrations and discussing her work with visitors. 

The event naturally brought a larger proportion of visitors from the South Asian heritage communities, and most extended their visit and came upstairs to see the selection of smaller Byzantium-series panels by Dave Pearson. We had well over 100 visitors who came to see us during the weekend, and we also sold four pieces - a gouache, two prints and a ink and watercolour drawing. 

Art Trail 2018

We're currently preparing the studio on Manchester Road for a new exhibition - 'Fragments' - which will open for the 2018 Rossendale Art Trail during the first weekend in October (6/7th)...also open Friday 5th from 10.30am - 3pm. 

The exhibition will show a selection of the small oil paintings that Dave Pearson created to hang adjacent to the main multi-panel paintings of his Byzantium series. 

Busy, busy

The 2017 Rossendale Art Trail was very successful; our studio was one of 19 participating. We had well over 100 visitors throughout the weekend, plus we made a few sales:

After this we're now preparing for a burst of activity over the next few months. Preparations are well advanced for the exhibition early in the New Year of Dave's work at Leicester Grammar School. Dave was evacuated to Leicester during the Second World War, and would have gone to school in the city. The Grammar School has excellent gallery space and it is a public space.

Arrangements to close down the Trust (see previous blogs) and establish a new business arrangement with his son Chris are beginning to take shape, and we're currently discussing an option to take on a new occasional exhibition space in Cheadle, from where we would be able to show Dave's work to a new audience. 

Some of the other things I've blogged about recently have developed too - the Art Fund has suggested that Compton Verney (http://www.comptonverney.org.uk) might make a good home for some of Dave Pearson's work from his English Calendar Customs and In The Seven Woods series, as they house the English Folk Art Collection.

Plans are moving forward with the Summer 2018 exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh, and of course Dave's self-portrait is currently on show in the Spotlight Gallery at Dean Clough, Halifax. 

Art Trail and more...

We had a very successful Open Weekend as part of Rossendale Art Trail; 40 visitors on Saturday, 75 on Sunday, and we made a number of sales. Most of all though there were lots of new faces to be seen, and clearly much interest and enthusiasm - with plenty of people staying in the studio for close to an hour, or over.

This week I take a dozen painting to York ('According to McGee') where Dave shares the first of the 'Modern Masters' joint shows with Barry de More. We've also agreed that the Turnpike in Leigh will host a large scale show of Dave's work in the autumn of 2018. There's discussions too with Dean Clough in Halifax - so a palpable sense of movement and interest in the collection.

Discussing things with visitors over the weekend, and with Ella Cole having now catalogued 12,000 pieces of work, we feel its time to look to the future, both of the studio and the collection. Over the next few weeks I'll be involved in meetings with artists, the Trustees and others, to draw up a plan that will renew our commitment to Dave Pearson's legacy and reputation.

The 2016 Art Trail weekend - Oct 1st/2nd

The Dave Pearson Trust is again taking part in the Rossendale Open Studios Art Trail on the weekend of the 1st and 2nd October. The studio at 54 Manchester Rd in Haslingden will be open from 11am until 5pm on both days. Admission is, of course, free. 

The weekend Open Studios will be bigger than ever, with 14 different studios  and workshops opening to the public, showing the work of a total of 33 artists. It's a great event and takes place throughout the Rossendale Valley - from Whitworth to Haslingden. This year there are 5 participating venues in the Haslingden/Helmshore area alone. 

Free, fully illustrated 12-page brochures are available from all participating venues and local libraries. 

At the Dave Pearson Studio you'll see the progress we've made in cataloguing the work, and Ella expects to have catalogued about 12,000 piece of work by the open weekend. There's a new sense of order as a result - plenty of work on the walls, but also boxes and boxes of artwork that are now labelled, photographed and fully listed in the archive. 

The Art Trail 2015

The decision to return the large ground floor front room at Dave's studio in Haslingden into a gallery space really paid off this weekend at the Rossendale Art Trail - the renamed Reveal Open Studios weekend. 

It meant that at least a small selection of the work can be viewed in optimum conditions (above) and this was clearly appreciated by the 80 or so people who came through over the two days. It was also reflected in a good number of sales being made, and a lot of interest from people who want to make an appointment to visit when they would have more time to look through the work.

Ella Cole, who is managing the process of cataloguing Dave's work, has now reached 9,999 pieces in the catalogue. Purposely holding back from the ten thousandth until we have a bottle of champagne at hand! This quantity  of work is still all contained on the top floor  of the building, and the ground and first floor have yet to be sorted through.