Bryan Pearce 1929 - 2007
Bryan Pearce was born in St Ives in Cornwall in 1929.
As a child he suffered from a condition (at that time unknown) Phenylketonuria (PKU), this affects the normal development of the brain. From an early age his artist mother encouraged Bryan to draw and paint. He attended the St. Ives School of Painting from 1953 to 1957 under the tutelage of Leonard Fuller.
In 1957 Pearce began painting in oils and started to exhibit regularly with the Penwith Gallery. He became an Associate of the Penwith Society of Arts, and later a full member, having been sponsored by the sculptor Denis Mitchell. He was also a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists. His first solo show was at the Newlyn Gallery in 1959.
In his lifetime he was recognised as one of Britain's foremost naïve painters, alongside Mary Fedden and Fred Yates. Pearce was well known for portraying the local St. Ives landscape and for his still-life compositions in oil, conte, pen & ink and pencil. He always worked slowly but consistently, producing perhaps twelve oil paintings a year.
As well as many galleries in his home town of St Ives, Bryan Pearce exhibited throughout England, including the New Art Centre, Victor Waddington Gallery and Stoppenbach & Delestre in London; Beaux Arts in Bath and the Oxford Museum of Modern Art and New Street Gallery Plymouth.
Sadly Bryan Pearce died at his home in St Ives in February 2007; shortly afterwards the Tate St Ives paid tribute to him by showing an exhibition called St Ives all round...the paintings of Bryan Pearce
Public Collections include: The Tate Gallery, The Arts Council and The Contemporary Arts Society
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