Neil Pearson - Scarborough’s Artist For All Seasons

Very few towns can boast as many fine artists as Scarborough!

This beautiful, immensely photogenic seaside town seems to attract them from all parts of the country and inspire them to paint local scenes - of which there are many about the castle, around the harbour, on the seashore and beyond in the Yorkshire countryside.

Neil Pearson is one of those who was actually born and raised here and who became a professional at an early age. His work does full justice to the spa town’s iconic places, but he has equal facility with portraiture and has worked in a variety of genres.

Educated at the George Pindar School and Scarborough College of Art where he studied Graphics, his first jobs were all in the creative sphere. “You could say I served my apprenticeship in a variety of artistic occupations,” he says, reflecting on work for a Leeds advertising agency, and freelance spells as a cartoonist for D.C.Thompson, the publishers of the Dandy and Beano comics, as book illustrator and not least as creator of ‘brazen seaside postcards’ which sold widely.

For good measure he also worked for a pirate radio station and managed a surf shop on Scarborough's south shore - before in his mid-twenties teaming up with a fellow designer to set up an interior design company.

North Beach

Hackness Shadows

Scarborough Harbour

One of his larger clients, Butlin’s, opened many corporate doors for him. “It suddenly became an exciting time for me,” he recalls. “Commissions were coming in from all over the country and I was travelling around, expanding my horizons, learning all the time.” He laughs at the memory. “I was working an 18-hour day; everywhere I travelled was a busman’s holiday.”

Later, he would begin to specialise in architectural illustrations which in the pre-computer age were done by skilled artists technically able to interpret plans and conjure up an appealing image of an edifice long before it was built. “It was a completely different form of work which needed more precision than I was used to but no less flair,” he contemplates. His aptitude for it gained him admission to the prestigious Society of Architectural Illustrators.

These days Neil is best known for his beautiful evocations of local scenes. His home on the North Yorkshire Moors offers sweeping vistas over Langdale and Troutsdale, stretching down to the coastline. “My studio is perfect for viewing the changing light and watching the seasons come and go,” he says, “though I like to get out to make preliminary sketches and capture photographs.”

Watercolour is his preferred medium, using the “wet-on-wet technique - but not too loose” onto heavy-duty, high-quality paper, which, when stretched, will not buckle. Once thoroughly soaked, it is attached to the board with masking tape and he goes to work.

Quayside Discussion

Sunlight on Rosedale

iPad Pals

“There is a temptation which should be avoided to have too many colours on the palate,” he says, while cheerfully adding a light wash. “I like fresh colours, applied spontaneously.” He pauses to select another brush from a large collection. “Warm colours advance towards us: cool colours recede.”

He will describe the hard and soft edges and later in the final stage will add definition and detail. “Introducing people to a landscape defines an era,” he says, thoughtfully. “If you don’t want a picture to date, it’s often best to leave human figures out.”

His work is available as high quality gicée limited-edition prints and he also welcomes commissions. An artist for all seasons, as adept at creating a portrait of a person or beloved family pet as of evoking a sunset gilding Scarborough harbour, he will sometimes turn to other media, graphite lead pencil, for example, or pen and wash. Indeed, he is not averse, when the mood takes him, to employing quick-drying acrylics on canvas.

Such is his reputation in the trade that even with the dawn of Artificial Intelligence upon us there remains a demand for his architectural drawings. “I guess the artist can still capture something of a building’s soul that technology at this early stage is not able to.”

These days Neil and his wife, Jenny, travel as widely as possible - and he will always take sketching material. Much of his recreational time, however, is spent afloat. He has a passion for sailing and for many years has been a crew member of Scarborough-based sailing yachts. He has completed the North Sea Race, from Scarborough to Holland a number of times. His idea of a perfect weekend is to sail anywhere from Hartlepool to the Port of Edinburgh.

His motto in life is “carry on regardless” and one of his ambitions is to emulate the achievements of his artistic inspirations. “David Hockney for one, has such a young eye for an older man. I hope that one day the same might be said about me. I also admire the loose spontaneity of watercolour master Alvaro Castagnet.”

Neil Pearson’s paintings are appealingly bright evocations of the world around him, fond celebrations yet always authentically representative. This native son truly is Scarborough’s painter for all seasons.

For more information visit Neil’s website at: www.neilodesign.co.uk