BY PAULA MONTGOMERY: SPECIAL TO THE PILOT
Fayetteville artist, Leslie Pearson, will open a new exhibition of paintings at the Campbell House Galleries in January.
A reception to meet the artist will be held Friday, Jan. 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. Friends of the artist host the reception, which is free and open to the public. The exhibit is on display through Jan. 28, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays, and from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 19 and 20. The galleries will be closed Jan. 21 in observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The Campbell House Galleries are located at 482 East Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines.
"Passing Strange and Wonderful," Pearson's first solo exhibition in Southern Pines, will feature several new landscape paintings in which she incorporates some unusual materials such as sand, sugar, paper, and plaster to create interesting textural properties.
Pearson's work represents a wide range of subject matter and style. Working primarily in oil and acrylic paint, she explores various avenues of interest including realism, texture, words and nonobjective imagery which she uses as a parallax for ideas, patterns, and emotions.
"Passing Strange and Wonderful" illustrate isolated instances, moments in time, and places that represent significant points of realization for Pearson. Through the landscapes, Pearson recreates meditative environments that suggest the loneliness of solitude and peaceful reflection.
"These paintings are like excerpts from my memory journal," says Pearson. "They are places I've been throughout various stages of my life which have made an impression one me in a way that made me want to recapture, recreate, and essentially relive the experience. Like everyone, I have a need to connect with other people, and I do it best through painting."
Among the pieces in the exhibition is "Hadrian's Wall," a large-scale painting in five vertical panels that captures her personal experience at a historical stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of Great Britain. (See Photo).
Pearson is a professional artist based in Fayetteville. A Missouri native, Pearson earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Southeast Missouri State University and was heavily involved in community arts programming as the assistant director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. She moved to England in 2000 where she earned a master's degree in museum studies at the University of Newcastle.
Upon returning to the states, Pearson joined the Army as a photojournalist for a military intelligence unit and freelanced as an arts and entertainment journalist for the Augusta Chronicle, a daily newspaper in Augusta, Ga.
Pearson received a 2006-2007 Regional Artist Project Grant from the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County. She now works from her studio, operates the Pearson Gallery, and teaches art at Fayetteville Christian School.
Other examples of Pearson's work can be viewed at www.amoveablefeast.us.
For more information about the January exhibit, contact the Arts Council of Moore County at 692-4356 or visit the Web site at www.artscouncil-moore.org.
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