Alan Pearson, painter, was born in 1948 on the Canterbury Estate, Bradford. He attended local primary and secondary schools and on leaving became an apprentice engineer. After completing his apprenticeship he worked in the local textile industry. He married in 1973 and raised a family, but in 2001, following his divorce, his life changed direction:
I had worked in the textile industry for all of this time until my divorce, but after a few years working as an engineer for an agency I decided to rent my house out and move abroad. I moved to southern Spain where I started painting much more often and formed ArtistAndalucia, a group of English and Spanish painters.
We had several exhibitions locally and painted during the summer months in Ronda. I won two competitions for Carnaval Poster for my village. We also gained a half-page mention in the Diario de Cadiz for one of our exhibitions. (Equivalent to the Yorkshire Post)
During this time Alan was also learning Spanish, as well as helping Spanish adults and young people to learn English.
I now had my English pension and decided to return home for a period to catch up with my family and sell my British house. After a brief spell on the East Coast I moved back to the West Riding. I now live in Keighley.
Alan joined the Guild of Aviation Artists in 2016 and is still a member. In 2019 he won the Bonham trophy for best new artist of the year; see photograph below.
Lightening & Bear
Intercept. Images by courtesy of Alan Pearson.
We used to hold our exhibitions in London at the Mall Galleries, but after Covid it became too expensive to hold exhibitions there. During the last 7 years as a member of the Guild I have been accepted for every exhibition and sold a picture in all but one (online because of Covid) exhibition. In 2020 I was accepted as an Associate Member.
In recent years Alan decided to paint more local scenes (see below), including nostalgia scenes, as well as maintaining three or four entries for the Guild of Aviation Artists annual exhibition. He paints predominantly in oils, but is expanding his range to include watercolour.
Old Tyrrel Street, Bradford
Wool Exchange, Bradford
More examples of Alan Pearson’s aviation artwork can be found at https://www.gava.org.uk Search ‘Alan Pearson’.