Peter paints a great deal across the UK – its cities, landscapes and coastline and in particular London. However, discovering new places has become more and more important and his painting has taken him further afield to India, Vietnam, Havana, USA and across Europe. He rarely paints from reference in the studio preferring to work directly from the subject on site in sometimes the foulest of weathers doing what he calls ‘see and put’. Recently however, Peter has become more interested in interiors – of his home in Bath and elsewhere. Working in charcoal, oil paint and pastel, he has received numerous awards at various national exhibitions.
Peter paints for one-man exhibitions each year either in London or Bath and has been showing with Messum’s, London since 2004. He is a passionate member of the New English Art Club, an elected society of contemporary painters whose ethos resides in art informed by the visual world and personal interpretation. The ‘New English’ was founded in 1885 by a group of artists dissatisfied with the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy. So they mounted their first show in 1886 including paintings by Clausen, Sickert and Stanhope Forbes. In 2018, Peter was elected president to the Club.
Peter is also a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal institute of Oil Painters, the Pastel Society, Bath Society of Artists and an honorary member of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Peter lives in Bath with his wife Lisa and their five children: Ollie, Toby, Hattie, Ella and Ned.
Exhibitions of your own work are all about showing off. You try and present the best of what you can do. You present a series of finished paintings or drawings editing any that do not work or are not up to scratch. Sketchbooks however are the opposite. They are for anything and everything – ideas, sketches, aides memoirs, diary notes and even shopping lists. I have kept sketchbooks with me close to hand as much as possible over the years.
There are two reasons I use them:
Firstly, they are really good things for recording and remembering, particularly the family. When kids are little they say funny things and we always mean to write them down but we never get round to it. You think you’ll remember, but you forget. Taking photos is a good reminder of days on beaches but drawings I think can be better as you are investing more time and energy in recording the moment, helping commit it to your memory. Often the drawings are not that great which annoys me but looking back at them I can recall that day so much better.
Secondly, I have always struggled with drawing. It has never come naturally to me, particularly line. I am always awestruck by great line drawings of someone like Norman Blamey and love a good portrait drawing. I guess it’s because it’s not what I do in my ‘normal’ body of work. I was feet and ankles below my four contemporaries at ‘A’-Level Art at Presentation College, Reading in 1981 in terms of proportional drawing. I just could not see and put.
It is often said that drawings show the bare bones of an artist. It certainly exposes them which is why I have decided to upload these sketchbooks. I have left as many ‘warts’ in as is palatable. There has been an element of editing: I have removed diary notes, shopping lists and the odd very weak doodle.
Awards:
2018: The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
2017: The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
2017: The Winsor & Newton Award (New English Art Club)
2013: The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
2013: The Le Clerc Fowle Medal, Royal Institute of Oil Painters
2012: The Critics’ Choice, NEAC
2012: Runner up, Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize
2011: The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Prize
2011: The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
2011: Pall Mall Centenary Show, RAC, Pall Mall: 2nd prize
2009: The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
2008: Arts Club Award (Royal Institute of Oil Painters)
2008: The Prince of Wales Award for Portrait Drawing
2006: First Artist in Residence at the Savoy Hotel, London
2005: Hunting Art Prizes: The Drawing Prize
2005: The Cross Gate Gallery Purchase Prize
2002: The Arts Club Award (New English Art Club)
2001: The Arts Club Award (Pastel Society)
2001: Selected to be hung at the National Gallery from the 2001 RP Show
2000: W. H. Patterson Memorial Award (New English Art Club)
1998: The Bristol Fine Art Oil Painting Prize (Royal West of England Academy)
1998: The Tom Rice Gallery Award (Pastel Society)
1997: The Saint Cuthberts Mill Award (Royal Society of British Artists)
1996: The Pastel Society Non-Members Award
Collections:
• The RAC Club
• The Holburne Museum, Bath
• The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
• The National Library of Wales
• Howard de Walden Estate
• House of Fraser
• Hottinger Group
• The Bowerman Collection
• The Savoy Art Collection
• The Target Corporation
• The Drapers’ Company
Memberships:
• New English Art Club
• Royal Society of British Artists (Honorary)
• Royal Society of Portrait Painters
• Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• The Pastel Society
• Bath Society of Artists
Publications:
Books:
• Bath: Paintings by Peter Brown
Published: Sansom & Co 2018, ISBN 978 1 911408 28 4
• London: Paintings by Peter Brown
Published: Sansom & Co 2015, ISBN 978 1 908326 80 5
• My Indian Travels, by Peter Brown
Published: Studio Publications 2013, ISBN978 1 908486 41 7
• Brown’s Bath: The Work of Peter Brown
Published: Browns Fine Art 2008, ISBN978 0 9559727 0 6
• Exhibition catalogues (x18) 2002–2017
DVD's:
• Peter Brown: Painting Arles – APV Films 2016
• Painting Varanasi – Neale Worley 2016
• Peter Brown: Oil Sketches – APV Films 2013
Art Education:
• 1987-90: BA(Hons) Fine Art 2:1, Manchester Polytechnic
• 1986-7: Diploma in Art Foundation Studies (commendation in painting) BCHE, Bath
One Man Exhibitions:
2019-20: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2019: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2017: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2016: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2016: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2014: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2014: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2013: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2013: Messum’s (‘My Indian Travels’)
2012: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2011: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2010: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2009: Alexander Meddowes, Edinburgh
2009: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2008: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2008: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2007: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2006: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2006: Albany Gallery, Cardiff
2005: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2005: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2004: Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2003: W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London
2003: “West Sussex”, Champs Hill, Pulborough
2002: W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London
2002: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2000: Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
Group Exhibitions:
2016: ‘New Perspectives’, Messums, Wiltshire
2015: ‘Varanasi – 4 Painters’, Indar Pasricha Fine Arts, London
2013: ‘Howard, Cullen, Horton, Devlin and Brown in India’, The Tryon Gallery, London
2011: Discerning Eye (invited artist)
2010: 2-man, Albany Gallery, Cardiff
2005: Arts Club Award Winners Exhibition, Dover Street, London
2004: ‘Richard Pikesley and Peter Brown’ 2-man, Chome Fine Art, Bath
2003: Autumn Exhibition, 3-man, W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London
2003: ‘The View’ Waterstones Piccadilly and Orleans House Gallery, Richmond
2002: ‘Peter Brown and David Gordon Hughes’, W. H .Patterson Fine Arts, London
2002: ‘Urban Myths’ 5-man, Beaux Arts, Bath
2000: ‘Peter Brown and Lionel Aggett’, W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London
2000: ‘A Select Seven’, W. H. Patterson Fine Arts, London
1997-99: Mixed shows: The Albany Gallery, Cardiff the Alresford Gallery, Alresford, Beaux Arts, Bath and Island Fine Art, Isle of Wight.
Open Exhibitions:
Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 to date
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011
Lynn Painter- Stainers Prize 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012
The Hunting Art Prizes finalist: 1998 , 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005
The First RWA Open Painting Exhibition 2001
The Discerning Eye: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2011
The Laing Art Competition: 2001
The New English Art Club: 1997 to date
Royal West of England Academy: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
Royal Institute of Oil Painters: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 to date
Pastel Society: 1996 to date
Cheltenham Open Drawing: 1998
Bath Society of Artists: 1995 to date
