Peter Davies
Artist and Teacher – Oil, Acrylic, Charcoal, Life-Drawing, Drawing.
“I like to work from nature, using observation as a starting point. My inspiration is the potential, my enjoyment is the emergent.”
I am interested in the relationship between image and reality. Art as an illusion. Not just of the objects but of the physical space around them and their interaction with light.
Though I’m not interested in narrative work, I will use a particular material/technique to describe some aspect of reality. For instance; in my Mining paintings, I took as inspiration the surface of the photographs I used for reference (worn and battered like an old rock seam) and worked the charcoal accordingly.
“Draw what you see not what you think you see”
My Story
I was born in Liverpool and for as long as I can remember I was given the opportunity to draw. In fact, until the age of 9 or 10 when my little brother was old enough to chase me around, I remember spending time on my own just copying comics or inventing strange machines. Without realising it I was teaching myself how to ‘look’ — a fundamental requirement in order to be able to draw what we see accurately.
At school I was very lucky to have a great art teacher who saw art and creativity in everything, and who encouraged an approach of questioning and thinking for oneself and to look for the elegance and beauty of things.
I loved physics and chemistry too, and developments in the sciences continues to fascinate me. I moved to London to study Fine Art and my final show reflected my intrigue in the modern understanding science had come to have of reality. The work I did back then was an attempt at creating a visualisation of some of the concepts – nowadays the affect this knowledge has on me is more subtly reflected in my work.
After college, I put painting on hold and pursued a career in computer programming. Not as massive a departure from the realms of art as you may think. Both have as an objective the representation of something in real world, and both require creativity in successfully achieving that aim. Just as in painting, there are some programming solutions that are beautiful, coherent and elegantly styled,
The painting and the direction it takes emerges, and as an artist you must consider the options and possibilities open to you and try to find the most elegant solution.
