At the instigation of Peter Lanyon, Pearce had his first one person exhibition at the Newlyn Art Gallery in 1959. A truly natural painter, Pearce remained largely uninfluenced by other artists. Often paired with the earlier local Naive artist, AlfredWallis, although with different temperaments, both are genuine 'Outsider' artists with a similar matter-of-fact freshness and singularity of view.
Always beginning a painting with a feint pencil outline and gradually blocking in areas using a personal palette of colours, a sense of order and calmness, bathed in the ambient light of western Cornwall, pervades Pearce's work. From the 1970s, with the help of other St Ives artists, Pearce produced a series of etchings. Also, under the direction of fellow artists and master printmaker, a number of silk screen stencils based on his oil paintings were produced.
Always beginning a painting with a feint pencil outline and gradually blocking in areas using a personal palette of colours, a sense of order and calmness, bathed in the ambient light of western Cornwall, pervades Pearce's work. From the 1970s, with the help of other St Ives artists, Pearce produced a series of etchings. Also, under the direction of fellow artists and master printmaker, a number of silk screen stencils based on his oil paintings were produced.