Painter Edith McNally introduces Helensburgh pastor-turned-painter Mike Pearson

Mike Pearson was born in Southampton, UK and as a young boy remembers drawing everyday. His Dad would bring reams of old-style computer paper with perforated edges and Mike would fill it with sketches. He went on to study art at college, but for reasons that can only be put down to “the wisdom of youth” he just put it all aside and hardly picked up a paintbrush for 30 years.

He became a pastor for most of his adult life, firstly in the UK and then here in Australia. He and his family emigrated from England in 2010 when Mike moved from church-based pastoring to becoming a chaplain in an aged care residential village in Miranda. He loves working with the elderly. Each one has an amazing story based on lives filled with an enormous variety of experiences and joys, challenges, achievements and inevitably sadness. Mike says his work has given him the great privilege of being part of their lives.

He restarted drawing and painting a couple of years ago after a personal crisis. He is gradually rediscovering a part of himself that had been neglected for far too long.
“There is something very healing about allowing yourself to be creative and telling that harsh inner critic to keep quiet, ” he says.

Mike moved to Helensburgh about two years ago and loves the country feel and the stunning coastline. He and his wife often walk their Cavoodle pup, Fearnley, around the town and on the beaches. He has just started the process of reinventing himself as a painter and is delighted and surprised when other people say how much they like what he has painted. Many of his paintings are coastal, often of the UK’s Dorset coast, but he is also having a go at local landscapes.

Mike is on Instagram @mikepearsonart. He is not painting to sell but welcomes enquiries, so feel free to contact him. 

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