Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

South African born Ellis Pearson’s love of art and reverence for nature will be revealed in an exhibition which opens at the Denmark Visitor Centre on Friday evening.

The former professional actor and alumni of L’Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris will present 15 oil-on-canvas works. Ellis started painting ‘seriously’ as a 10-year-old in South Africa and counts Monet, Matisse and Van Gogh as having a ‘huge influence’.

He studied graphic arts at the Natal Techicon for three years and painting and sculpture for one year. The exhibition, Silently Singing, includes bold landscapes and nature scenes which reflect the physicality of Ellis’s actor training.

Arriving in Australia 13 years ago, Ellis and wife Mairead have spent the past eight years renovating a Denmark farmhouse and old shed as a studio which doubles as a home school for grandchildren. They moved into the renovated home about a year ago from Perth and have a daughter, Ceire, and son, Daniel, and three granddaughters.

A big influence in Ellis’s art has been his acting career which included a 20-year partnership with Bheki Mkhwane, a Zulu man. Ellis’s training at L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq involved little dialogue. “You’d call it physical theatre that’s very visual and relies on sights and sounds rather than the spoken word,” he said. “It involves mime and work with masks.”

During their collaboration, Ellis and Bheki travelled to 23 countries performing ‘basically African stories’ playing many characters and ignoring the differences in their skin colour. “I’d be a little African boy, a 10-year-old, and Bheki an old white man,” Ellis said. “We performed in countries like Korea where they don’t speak much English but our work still transmitted well.”

South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 were held during the duo’s collaboration. They toured South Africa in the lead up to the election performing to incorporate voter education. At the time many people did not understand democracy. “African people had never been allowed to vote,” Ellis said. “So the idea of having a secret vote and voting for whom you really wanted rather than what your parents or the chief told you was new.”

“It was so interesting to be part of South Africa through those difficult years. “It was almost civil war through to the years when Mandela was released and then things changed. “I’m very glad to have grown up in that country.”

For the opening of the exhibition at the Denmark Visitor Centre, Ellis, who plays ‘sort of jazz double bass’ and guitar, has written an ‘ode to Denmark’. Daughter Ceire will sing. “Denmark is a beautiful place,” Ellis said. “It has become our home. “I’m most grateful always to have been able to steep myself in the creative arts. “I’ve been able to earn my living from being an actor, but otherwise they’ve all been my hobbies and I’ve met lovely people through that.”

Soundbites choir will also sing at the opening on Friday, March 7. The exhibition runs from March 7-30 and is open from 9.30am-3.30pm, Monday to Saturday. Ellis is a member of community choir Eklektika.

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 6 March 2025.