Richard Pearce
If it was possible to have "salt water coursing through your veins" Richard Pearce has it. He was born just yards from the sea and has spent his adult life living and working a few inches from the ocean on the Isles of Scilly where he was born in 1953. His childhood was spent scrambling across rocks and exploring coves; his work is drenched in that atmosphere and of the sea, sky, and the rugged shores of the Isles of Scilly Cornwall UK.

Richard works from his beach studio on the Isles of Scilly and Melbourne Australia.
For a man who works in a shed on a small island off the coast of Cornwall, Richard Pearce has a remarkably high profile. His work is widely available as prints and cards and his original paintings are being avidly collected. Richard's mainland exhibitions invariably sell-out and he is barely able to keep up with demand from visitors to his studio during the summer months.

"He was born, raised and educated on the Isles of Scilly. He began painting in the early 90's and now has a terrific following on the Islands, on the mainland and overseas, particularly in Australia, where he spends the winter months"
Richards paintings give a real taste of the intense grandeur of the seascapes that are the basis on which his life exists, his paintings provide an insight into a way of life totally dominated by the sea. His work is moody and reflects very strongly the changing weather and the swinging moods of the sea. Acrylic is the medium, which he prefers, frequently with a pallet knife, which maintains freshness only achieved through working very quickly. Some of his work has a heavy impasto while others are as slick as the sea he is painting. Colour dominates his work; powerful blues ranging from cobalt to cerulean; strong forms; great slabs of colour that convey both the effervescence of the water droplets swept away in the wind and the grave weight of the heaving ocean.

His work has a marked ethnic Cornish feel: "Pearce avoids the temptations of the tourist trap, the chocolate box approach, to come up with compositions that are as personal as they are powerful. Colour essays in moody blues-salty cobalt to sky blue cerulean-they are strongly constructed and as all-embracing as the ocean, the 'common denominator', the 'unplumbed, salt, estranging sea', within whose embrace they lie, and whose waves reach almost to the door of his Studio." (Frank Ruhrmund, art critic and writer). His works have been purchased for collections in the UK, USA, Sweden, Spain and Australia. He has worked in Australia, Denmark and Sweden and settled for a while in the Corbiere region of France

Publication include"Selected Contemporary Artists of Australia" a book by Michael Berry. From Great atlantic publications ''an Eagles eye, on Bryher,Tresco and Other Isles of Scilly '',''Island Dreams'' and ''Cassiterites'' and  by Chloe Wild ''Depending on the tide'' a very clever blend of words, photos and paintings that will give you a great feel for Richard's Island life .  "Country Living magazine" and "A Royal Duchy" A Portrait of the Duchy of Cornwall by David Burnett and photographed by Peyto Slatter. "IKEA" "Waterstones" and "The Art Group" have commisioned work for cards posters and prints,Petro Canada calenda 2008.

His paintings have been exhibited at:
Harbour Gallery St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly UK
Tresco Gallery, Isles of Scilly UK
Cambourne School of Mines(solo exhibition) UK
University of Exeter.UK
Bendigo Regional Arts Centre Australia.(solo exhibition).
Sydford Garden Studio Philip Island Australia.
Manyung Gallery Mt. Eliza Victoria Australia
Ecliptic Gallery Armadale Victoria Australia
Great Atlantic Mapworks, St Just, Cornwall.(Solo Exhibition) UK
"Over the Moon" Gallery Churchtown St Agnes Cornwall
Lighthouse Gallery, causewayhead Penzance Cornwall
Webbs road fine art 1 burland road london SW11 6SA
Bell Fine Art 67b parchment street winchester hampshire
CUBEł Gallery plymouth
Contemporary Art Holdings, Cirencester

Collections: Tresco estate, Petro Canada, 

Artists' Statement:
"My work is always as much about what I eliminate in my painting as it is about what I include. I try to achieve balance by experimentation and elimination, each stage of the development of a composition should be allowed to dictate the creation of the next. These paintings are journeys where each additional layer represents a shift in direction, the body of work represents a continuation of the themes I have been exploring over the past few years, It seems to me that all painting involves illusion - the rearranging of what is real into something different. Often beginning with random spills and splatters, I continue by making increasingly more calculated decisions. Seascape imagery has remained constant in my work, acting as both a point of reference and departure point. The greatest difficulty in painting is to allow each new work to develop itself. What is underneath is as important as what is on the surface, yet vague forms begin to appear and each movement is preserved like tracks in the sand."

Latest news: working with Contemporary Art Holdings for a client in Japan,paintings for limited edition Giclee prints.

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