When devils, wizards or jugglers deceive the sight,
they are said to cast glamour o'er the eyes of the spectator.
Allan Ramsay
Pearl Bates’s Internationally exhibited and collected works come from an extraordinary world of dreams, enchantment, a touch of humour, and lashings of glamour.
Naturally drawn to the absurd, Pearl seeks to celebrate our hidden psyches — the remarkable, bizarre, and sometimes darker facets of ourselves that we are not always brave enough to reveal to the world. Who are we, behind the masks we wear?
“Characters, creatures and ideas tend to hang around and pester me until I have rendered them in ink, paint, or graphite. Sometimes I’ll spot someone in a cafe, on a bus, or across the street, and I’ll feel compelled to try and capture whatever it was about that person that sparked my imagination. It could be something about their energy, or the way they walked, or the way they were daydreaming.”
Inspired by The Golden Age of Illustration, Pearl fuses the whimsical with a sharply contemporary twist, creating a memorable and distinctive style that has won her many plaudits.
“Some of the most original work I’ve seen”
Pearl has exhibited in New York City, London, Zurich, Marbella, Berlin, Antwerp, and Santa Barbara, California, among others. Recent commissions include a ten-piece mural in central Brighton, UK, for Southern Water, and illustrations for the award-winning international virtual opera project, Vopera.
She graduated from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design in London with a degree in theatre design, and worked in film, TV, and theatre before moving to Berlin and then New York City. She is currently based on the UK’s South Coast, where she works from a studio that overlooks a castle.
