Garry Pereira loves the ‘bliss of solitude’, sitting, in the spirit of an actual fisherman, by rivers, streams and ponds with his hand made paints and sometimes a found object, like a piece of slate, to use as a canvas.
He is one of the UK’s most in demand and collected contemporary painters.
Izaak Walton, who wrote The Compleat Angler in 1653, the most reprinted book in the world after the Bible, said “God did never make a more calm, quiet and innocent recreation than fishing.”
You could say that painting landscapes in tranquillity can compare.
Garry Pereira was born in South London in 1974, but chose to study in Norwich, where he has lived, studied and worked for almost twenty years. He converted 18th century Alms houses in a Norwich courtyard to create a meticulous work and storage space. “I feel I am in my own bubble, which is what I like.”
“I tracked down two old fly fishing boxes that I saw immediately as being a frame.”
A curious new source of inspiration last year was a ‘massive collection of flies in an antique shop’. “I tracked down some old fly fishing boxes that I saw immediately as being a frame. Within the painted images inside I am trying to match the detail of the flies, and pick up on the colours.”
He captures the spirit of the ‘earth around him’ in distant lonely places that fly anglers will know well and appreciate, from the Highlands of Scotland to Snowdonia. Norfolk remains his favourite county, for its vast skies, wide expanses of coastline, meadows, woodlands, and crashing waves.
There have been at least 200 solo shows of Pereira landscapes over the past fifteen years, recently in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, New York, London and at home in Norfolk.
David Profumo, the well-known writer and fishing enthusiast, has bought Garry’s work.
*Visit the Exhibition*
Artist: Garry Pereira
Exhibition: ‘Stand and Stare’
Dates: 17th October until 2nd November 2017
Location: Osborne Studio Gallery
2 Motcomb St, Belgravia
London
SW1X 8JU
Entry: Free admission to the gallery
Website: www.osg.uk.com