About Peter
“Peter Kettle’s works have the surfaces of well-worn exterior walls, buffeted, corroded but long to withstand the effects of time and weather – this gives them an enlivening stoicism. The alchemy of light and landscape through mixed media and technique is a quality that shines through in each of the paintings. Strangely they combine an organic tangibility with an urban aesthetic, the palimpsestic appearance of temporarily unadorned billboards, and the still lifes of Georges Braque.” New Blood Art
‘If you can’t milk, paint!’
‘If you can’t milk, paint!’ My studio exemplifies this dictum, as I work in the dis-used milking shed at the bottom of Llysworney, Wales, and neighbours are thirty argumentative tenants – a herd of cows. Then again, their plaintive mooing is probably comment on my tuneless efforts to sing Thin Lizzy until two in the morning.
The shed is bitterly cold in the winter; and I have felt the brunt, this year, after this squatting season refused to move out for spring, inviting chill-blains and raw finger-tips; but the size is incredible and well worth the pain. Every artist should suffer for their art in some form, and mine comes in a heatless concrete milking shed, but C’est la Vie!
My work is drawn from sketches (apologies for the pun) made on location, re-visiting the areas repeatedly to gather ideas, observe and document. I find this indispensably important as a landscape artist, to get out and enjoy the environment. The journey of travelling along the coasts, dipping into the vales and battling the squalls of my surroundings is an integral part of the process; and every visit upturns a new stone and a demand for a new painting. With every exhibition I like to accompany my paintings with the sketch books I have compiled and I use them to begin experimenting with textures and colours. Click on the sketches tab to see some examples
