Zig Zag Cultural Centre

Photograph: (from left) Ellis Pearson sitting in front of his painting 'Dancing Water' | Ellis Pearson sitting in his studio. 
📸 Zig Zag Gallery

Exhibition: Crooked Water

Dates: 12th - 27th February 2022 | Venue: Zig Zag Gallery, Kalamunda

How my personal history has shaped my art practice:
The biggest influences on my painting practice have been my love of making theatre and making music. Also very important, has been my life-long spiritual practice which may partly be described as 'making the invisible visible'. Music practice has helped me understand that visual art can embody melody, harmony and rhythm. One can 'hear' the different tones in a painting. Just as music can create a particular atmosphere, a painting can do likewise. In a related process, my physical theatre practice has helped me embody movement and gesture in my canvases. I literally 'dance' when I paint, trying to make marks that are spontaneous and have that 'nameless' quality.

Regarding my creative art practice as a spiritual journey, I have come to value my painting, for example, as a way to experience qualities such as stillness in the midst of movement, peace in the midst of a busy world, and the development of the capacity to see more deeply.

The meaning behind the title "Crooked Water".
Poetry may be described as 'painting with words". Usually one would refer to a 'crooked' politician, or a crooked picture on the wall. For me, linking two unlikely words such as 'crooked' and 'water', paints an intriguing and imaginative and perhaps, playful, picture. More directly, the water tank that appears in many of my paintings is an old, rusty, and decidedly crooked metal object that sits so serenely in its field in Denmark. And the two rivers that are the subjects of other paintings - the Swan and Denmark rivers are so wonderfully 'crooked' in their endless twisting and turning.

Where I find my inspiration:
Nature! The incredible play of creatures, sky, air, trees, water, mountains, earth and earthworms. I feel that we as human two-legged creatures, are more interesting when we take a break from identifying ourselves as 'humanity' with it's seemingly unending anxiety, competitiveness and restlessness, and identify more with our 'creaturely' selves. With a sense of wonder, we can experience our indigenous nature. I have found that this a helped me become more aware of the beauty in the clouds, in the light from the sun, the day changing to night, the breeze that moves the trees.

Image: Fineart G. Lorenz, Aquarius meeting, 2021, Oil on Canvas, 101 x 76cm.

Exhibition: 100% Semi SuR ReaL

Dates: 4 - 27 March 2022 | Venue: Zig Zag Gallery, Kalamunda

How would you describe yourself as an artist?
I can say for myself that I was born as an artist. Furthermore, in 1996 I was officially recognised by the Austrian Ministry for Education & Art as awarded “Freelance Active Visual Painter”.

Can you tell me more about how your personal history has shaped your art practice?
I started drawing and painting as a teenager. 
I learned the profession of technical draftsman, I also completed an apprenticeship as a product constructor and designer. During this time I was already internationally successful with my paintings.
In the mid-1980s I was invited by Prof. Arik Brauer to his masterclass at the “Academy of Fine Arts” in Vienna. At the age of 29 (1987) I decided to become a “freelance artist”.

What drew you to Surrealism?
The unique works of Salvador Dali. If you deal with surrealism – and its representatives – it was a fascination for me to dive into this dream world.

How has your practice changed over time?
Not very much, actually. Of course you get better technically over the decades. 
I was never 100% a surrealist, which is also reflected in the title of my exhibition… “Semi” SuR ReaL. I am more of a representative of the symbolistic art style or of the “Vienna Fantastic Realism”.

What motivates you to create?
I live to paint – and paint to survive

What is your process for creating these paintings?
A good idea, inspiration and my creativity.
Most of the time the title of the picture is already born and so I can read into the matter. Another important point for me id dealing with polarities. I look at both ideas and recognise the complexity, connections but also the humour.

What role do you think art and artists have in wider society?
An enormous importance. They are the ones which hold high encouragement of imagination - but also those who had to cross boundaries in order to find new possibilities of expression and to realize them. I am convinced that humanity would not have come this far in its evolution – without artists.