Nico Pearleyes, Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory member provides some fascinating insights into his practice and experience as surreal painter, as he responds to the questions below:
- What is the biggest change you’ve made to your art practice since you started and why?
- If you could only create one more work, what would you like that work to say?
- What impact has your upbringing and cultural background had on your work, and how it has influenced your approach and aesthetic?
- What motivates you to keep going even when sales are slow or you hit a creative block?
What is the biggest change you’ve made to your art practice since you started and why?
I haven’t made any big changes so far, but over time, my practice has proven to be incremental. And that’s what I enjoy when creating new paintings: even when I have a clear idea of what I want to achieve, it always turns into a journey that brings me to unexpected places. Each time, new elements or techniques appear and integrate themselves, enriching and deepening the visual language I’m developing in ways I didn’t anticipate. I like how painting involves working with uncertainty and unpredictable elements.
If you could only create one more work, what would you like that work to say?
This work would say that we should stay wild and free to experience life in our own way. At a time when technology and the human mind are taking up all the space, it’s important to remain free and untamed—to disconnect from overly structured ideas that tend to trap us in limited realities.
Today, it almost feels like we’re no longer free to experience life the way we want or to imagine a desirable future. But in truth, what people believe and feel in any given moment shapes the steps that follow.
My work is about how art, through the lens of emotion and aesthetics, lays the foundation for new realities to emerge within us—offering a space for freedom and wildness.
So to answer your question, if I had only one more work to create, it would invite people to cultivate a sense of wilderness within themselves, just as nature does outwardly. From that inner wilderness comes freedom, well-being, and creativity—like what we feel when immersed in nature.
I’d also want it to express that, just as a painting can represent absolutely anything, we are completely free to choose how we feel and perceive. No one can take away our absolute freedom to feel, think, perceive, and experience in our own way. That, in my opinion, is the root of change in the world—and exactly where art operates. That’s what I would like my “ultimate artwork” to say.
What impact has your upbringing and cultural background had on your work, and how it has influenced your approach and aesthetic?
I come from a multicultural family, and I grew up with both a French upper-middle-class education and exposure to French Caribbean culture from my father. I’m also half Indian, and I’ve lived several times in South Korea.
I’m not sure how strongly this background shows in my work, but it has definitely nurtured my love for blending influences—from traditional Korean Minhwa paintings to skateboard culture, science fiction, the Renaissance, and even Félix Vallotton’s landscapes.
What motivates you to keep going even when sales are slow or you hit a creative block?
Well, that’s a good question. I think these harder periods are important because they force me to refocus on the real reasons that drew me to art in the first place. For me, it’s about expressing ideas and developing a visual language that reflects everything I’ve been talking about above. I don’t think sales—or simply trying to be creative—are strong enough motivations to create, even though they are important.
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