This film describes how artist Bryan Pearce started to paint. He was encouraged by his mother and began to depict life in a way particular to him with his own idea of perspective. His drawings and paintings were largely created around his home town of St. Ives. They are now much sought after by collectors, especially his harbour scenes.

Bryan Pearce and His Artist Friends 

Published by Janet Axten 

Now approaching the age of seventy-five, this is an excellent opportunity to celebrate Bryan’s half-century, and how better to do so than by commissioning a new survey of his work by the eminent writer Mel Gooding; by showing, through reproducing Bryan’s most recent work, that he is painting as energetically as ever, and for the first time recording with affection the life and work of twenty-six artists who have supported him and his mother Mary through a fascinating chapter in the history of the town. Some of the artists featured in the following pages will be well known; others less so, while many are still working and continue to play a role in Bryan ’s artistic life.

There is also a special box set containing the catalogue ‘Bryan Pearce and his Artist Friends’ and lithograph – SHISHA, 2003 – which is published in an edition of seventy to coincide with the exhibitions held at Victoria Art Gallery and Beaux Arts, Bath and Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, March–June 2004. The lithograph has been made by Bryan Pearce assisted by Nelson and Rose Rands in St Ives, with platemaking and printing by Curwen Press, Cambridge. Each print, measuring 200 x 200mm is signed and dated by the artist in an edition of 100 plus 20 artist’s proofs on 300gms Somerset velvet white paper. The card, which has been produced with acid-free board kindly donated by GF Smith of Hull, will protect the lithograph when stored in its box. The box and catalogue are printed on Hello Silk, made with fibre from sawmill residues, forest thinnings and sustainable Austrian forests. Pulps used in the production are totally chlorine free and the stock is fully recyclable and bio-degradable.

Published in 2004 by Janet Axten, St Ives

Keith Colquhoun, for St Martin’s Gallery, London
March-April 1962

Peter Lanyon, for St Martin’s Gallery, London
May 1964

Alan Bowness, for New Art Centre, London
January 1966

Cecil Collins, for Bene’t Gallery, Cambridge
April-May 1966

Alan Bowness, for Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
November-December 1975

Mary Pearce, for Newlyn Orion Gallery
July 1977

Alan Bowness, for Victor Waddington Gallery, London
June-July 1978

Jim Ede, for Falmouth Art Gallery, Falmouth
July-August 1982

Heinz Ohff, for Falmouth Art Gallery, Falmouth
July-August 1982

Charles Thomas, for Bryan Pearce: the Artist and his Work
1999

Mel Gooding, for Bryan Pearce and his Artist Friends
2004

Sarah Hughes, Susan Daniel-McElroy, Janet Axten and Mel Gooding,
for Tate St Ives
February – May 2007

‘We are delighted that Bryan Pearce made this bequest’, said Lucinda Middleton, the Royal Cornwall Museum’s Fine and Decorative Art Curator. ‘It is a very important body of work which, thanks to his generosity, will now be accessible to members of the public’.