Esther Pearl Watson

First time I remember hearing about Esther's Dad was when i was in high school and my parents moved out to Sachse, TX. Knowning i was into the odder side of things, my friends asked if i had seen the man who made flying saucers in his yard. I never did see such and had forgotten the tales until things added up again years later.

I have been a long time subscriber of Bust magazine and always read the comic on the back page first. Then we got the best package from artists ever- complete with postcards, stickers, and fanzines from Mark Todd and his wife, Esther Pearl Watson. We kept it for a few years, until one day we got a postcard of an exhibit of paintings by Esther Pearl Watson. The postcard image was a great colorful, really funny and surreal flying saucer scene and the corner title read "Sachse, TX".

At that moment it all added up from my high school memories, the kept artists' package and my love for the Unlovable character in Bust mag.

I called Esther right away and told her of my memories, weird series of events, and how much I enjoyed her art. We bought a piece from that show in LA for our own collection and asked Esther and Mark to be a part of a group show we were putting together that Summer about 3 years back.

We have continue to show Esther's work and she was even our first one person show this past Winter. This place is large and we had never thought one artist could tackle it all, but it was one of our best shows ever, complete with some large paintings she had done for an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of Art, a huge 10ft. pink flying saucer in the center of the room and many great smaller paintings and drawings that rounded out the show.

Esther's paintings are fun, colorful, biographical and well executed. My favorite thing about her paintings is the way she paints the Texas sky. She may live in CA now, but she knows a good Texas sky and its colors. I am also loving her new drawings with the foil flying saucers which well mimic her Dad's shiny saucers.

Esther is well known for her paintings, drawings, illustrations, and also her comics, with recenty publishing her second book of the Unlovable. We treasure Esther and her husband Mark, not only for their art but for their sweet daughter Lilly, their cute frenchie Mr. Pickles, and for their dear friendship.

Here are some of Esther's latest pieces......
(click on images to enlarge and see details)