David Pearce

Etruscan Equine Vase - Bright Red, Brown + Orange Still Life Painting with Plant

2024

David Pearce is a British painter. After travelling widely throughout the 1980s, Pearce returned to settle and work near Padstow in Cornwall. As a self-taught artist, he sought inspiration from St Ives artists including Patrick Heron, Alfred Wallis and Roger Hilton in developing his primitive style. Pearce combines a naive spontaneity of composition with exciting use of colour, drawing on elements of the surrounding Cornish coastline. "My work explores the notion of the ephemeral and the fragility of existence in both a personal and wider context. In these fast paced virtual times, I paint as it feels innate, constant, tangible. I try to work with a primitive directness, using seemingly simple compositions and just enough complexity and confusion to hold the attention. The paintings are deliberately intimate in size, with no ego or grandeur. I celebrate the innocence of awkward lines and nervous tension," The Artist, 2018 His work has been widely exhibited in Europe and the USA. Recent exhibitions include The John Moores Painting Prize (2018), The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2015 - 2017), "Accidental Genius" Milwaukee Art Museum (USA, 2012) and The London Art Fair (2011-2016). Between 2002-2006 his work was also featured at The Outsider Art Fair, New York.