Tuesday 17 February 2015

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, 



Sunday 15 February 2015

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.



Tuesday 10 February 2015

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' Gallery8 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.