Tasman Presences I 

Alan Pearson is one of New Zealand’s foremost expressionist artists. His is an imagery born of the attempt to understand life, the world, and his place in it. He works with energy and passion towards conveying the turbulent emotions that such an undertaking brings forth. Upon initial observation, Pearson's paintings often appear to be total abstraction, gestural entanglements of colour and movement, but looser inspection reveals an essence or identity made up of figurative elements. As artist in residence on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, Pearson spoke of “the elemental forces of the place, the spirits of nature appeared on the beach, dancing before me” - the isolation, the power of nature, the raw and temporal environment which overshadows and shapes the inhabitants is evidenced in this work, one of a pair of paintings (the other being 'Tasman Presences II") created in 1993.