Charity art auction & exhibition fundraiser

Ian R. Pearsall is showing at Cafe Sobar this autumn, with a charity art auction and exhibition fundraiser on Friday 6 November. The exhibition itself has been running since Wednesday 21 October, so you can catch the work well before the auction night.

Pearsall's paintings are moody, atmospheric mixed-media pieces that centre on Northern post-industrial landscapes and Staffordshire's 'Six Towns', capturing the quiet grit and history of working-class communities. He's lived in Hanley, one of the Potteries towns, for years and draws on his own history there: a B/Tec Art & Design course at Newcastle-Under-Lyme Art College and more than four years in the area, with the Waverley Building at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic as a landmark of that time. He's spoken openly about a family tragedy and a period of addiction, and frames exhibiting as part of his recovery. For him, showing at Cafe Sobar is a deeply personal return to Nottingham.

He's worked with a fair few people over the years, collaborating with poet Lindsay Bainbridge and author Dave Proudlove, and with illustrators Phil Shallcross and Edgar Broughton. He's also illustrated local books including The High Clearing, Ballad of the Streets, Streets of my Home Town and A Mother Town Anthology. The exhibition brings that work together in one place.

The auction night is on Friday 6 November, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, with doors opening at 4:30 pm. You can see the work at Cafe Sobar, 22-24 Friar Lane, Nottingham NG1 6DQ, and the exhibition stays open from Wednesday 21 October leading up to the auction.