John Pearson’s moody boating scenes are capturing a niche in the resort region’s art scene, with his works now on display in four major galleries and commissions coming in from throughout Australia.
Buoyed by his emerging success, Pearson said he eventually hoped to make his lifelong love affair with canvas a full-time pursuit, eclipsing his primary job as head of mathematics at Nambour State High School.
He admits that the flowing, abstract, creative passions of an artist are not normally found in the same package as a mathematician, but he says he is lucky that "both sides of my brain balance".
While he had enjoyed his previous life as a nuclear physicist-which included a CSIRO contract to establish its Tandertron Linear Accelerator- Pearson said art was "safer" ("not so much high voltage and background radiation") and more satisfying for the soul.
And it’s soul that Pearson likes to capture in his paintings of boats – giving them life with the stroke of a brush and a setting which reflects a range of moods.
He admits that the discipline of his mathematics skills helps in detailing the accurate rigging of a yacht, but emphasises that his work does not strive for photo-perfection.
"It’s what you leave in and what you take out – what you do so that a person’s imagination can take over and they can see things for themselves," he said.
"But I know there’ll always be someone with a magnifying glass checking wether the nut on the winch is the right way around."
NOT a nuclear ship...Sunshine Coast nuclear physicist John Pearson exercises the other side of his brain with his maritime artwork, which is proving popular throughout Australia..
Picture: Graeme Parkes
Born in Sydney and a graduate of the New South Wales University of Technology, Pearson, now 39, began his first job as a physicist working for a geological airborne surveying company.
But his love of boats and sailing was inborn, and he borrowed money to buy his first yacht long before he ever bought a car. " I used to ride on my bike to my boat to go sailing," he said.
While he attended night-time art classes while studying physics during the day, Pearson said he really only pursued his creative streak seriously since moving to Mooloolaba with his wife Karen and their five children more than three years ago. He generally works from photographs, and now his larger works sell from about $1200.