

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