Author: PT
Peter Town is a born storyteller, gifted with an ability to translate both everyday quirks and deeper philosophical musing through his work. Often using strong lines, striking colours and symbolism in his pictures, Town has built a vibrant portfolio.
Born in Bethnal Green, he grew up in Liverpool and was later educated at Bath Academy of Art and the Royal College of Art. Taking advantage of his ability to communicate ideas visually, he went on to enjoy a successful career as a designer while he continued to paint and develop his artistic style through drawing, painting, photography, and printmaking.
While many of Town’s paintings use strong shapes and primary colours, such as the Stairscapes series, others are quieter and more contemplative, representing a more tranquil inner space.
His Abstracts series features works where the narrative is more ambiguous but ever-present. He sees landscapes, interior spaces and natural forms as abstract shapes and colours, transcribing these in his unique style onto paper and canvas.
Decorative and Structural
#structuralcurves – noble grandeur 01
This doorway on Lincoln Cathedral’s north side is a feast of decorative arches and curves that build an illusion of great depth while drawing the eye ever upwards. Only the door openings are structural, while the two outer arches elegantly fill what would otherwise have been a blank wall.
Enclosure
These fake windows are in the boundary wall of what was the Ealing Asylum, intended purely as decoration on an otherwise blank wall. One wonders what was on the reverse.
The mixing starts
#naturalforms – fluid sculpture 02
Mixing the basic colours in various combinations to give me an idea of what combinations are available, here I am adding black in various degrees to the base colour.
Wheat Harvest
#weatheredlandscape – elemental sculpture 01
The wheat harvest has been poor this year and I suspect that the farmer has abandoned this field and will plough the crop back into the soil in the spring. The weather has altered this landscape but in a subtle and unexpected way.
Burne-Jones in stitch at Tate Britain
A crumbling mountain
#solesurvivors – exploring isolation 01
The form, textures and colour of this magnificent old oak are breath-taking, you will find it in the gardens at Chatsworth, Derbyshire.
Hand crafted
#allthatglitters – dreams of fortunes 01
This is Little Hugh’s grave in Lincoln Cathedral, which relates to a very unsavoury tale of anti-Semitism. The stone has been smoothed by the thousands of hands that have caressed it over the past 600 years, and discoloured by the grease of those hands, lending it its unusual colour and texture.
Paint trials
#naturalforms – fluid sculpture 01
It has taken a few weeks of experimentation to find a paint type that meets my requirements for these new abstracts. In the end I have chosen a water-based emulsion paint form Little Green.
Vertical strata
#CLOSE-UP – ALL ABOUT SCALE 02
The elements have sculpted what remains of this tree stump into vertical strata that resemble a geological cross section.
