peter brow n
www.messums.com www.messumswiltshire.com
Messum’s 2019
MESSUMS
peter brown
peter brown at home and abroad
2019
MESSUMS MESSUMS LONDON 28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG +44 (0)207 437 5545 www.messums.com 1
Playing FIFA: Ollie, Toby, Ned and Ellie oil on board 30 x 25 cms 12 x 10 ins
MESSUMS WILTSHIRE Place Farm, Court Street, Tisbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6LW +44 (0)1747 445042 www.messumswiltshire.com
foreword Back in 2012 Peter Brown made a large oil painting of the Victorian cast iron fireplace in his studio. The mantelpiece is loaded with paints and brushes and jars, whilst the floor is littered with books, boxes and audio equipment. It is a deceptively simple yet quietly beautiful painting, a study (almost) in black and white. It is an eye-catching moment of calm contemplation that contrasts with the paintings of bustling streets in Bath, London and Paris that have, over the past twenty-five years, made his name. Brown recognizes and enjoys this contrast, and since moving into his new home in the Bath suburb of Weston in 2006 he has painted more and more intimate interiors like this one. The youngest of his five children was born there, its walls are filled with his paintings and those by artists he admires, and Brown acknowledges that this comfortable, extensive family house has become ‘a great source of inspiration.’ His first-floor studio is only a few yards from his children’s bedrooms, and the daily life of home surrounds him as he works. There are various other paintings he has made of the studio – empty at different times of day and in different states of light – as well as views up and down staircases or through doorways into rooms where his children gather.
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Gap Year
oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms 20 x 30 ins
These works are, he suggests, ‘an antidote … to plein-air street scenes and landscapes. I can paint the spaces that I find interesting and record the family growing up. An utter indulgence, but then being allowed to spend my life painting this beautiful city and wherever else my travels take me is indulgence too.’ Together with a series of landscape paintings from the long hot summer of 2018 which he spent working out of doors around Suffolk, Norfolk and London, these interiors form the gently beating heart of his new exhibition – the latest in what has been a series of very successful shows at Messum’s. It is also Brown’s first solo exhibition since he was elected President of the New English Art Club last year. The NEAC (or ‘New English’ as it is affectionately known) has had an important place in British painting since its foundation in 1885, when it quickly emerged as a significant and radical alternative to the classical, more conventional art to be seen at the Royal Academy. Its early members included some of the key British painters in the appearance of both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in this country – important names such as John Singer Sargent, Philip Wilson Steer, Walter Sickert, Gwen and Augustus John and Robert Fry.
3
The Studio, Late Morning, Winter
oil on canvas 102 x 91 cms 40 x 36 ins
4
Studio Mantlepiece, 2012
oil on canvas 127 x 102 cms 50 x 40 1â „8 ins
5
Christmas Jumper and DMs: Ella on the Stairs
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
Indeed, it was Sickert’s participation in the Club that first brought it to Brown’s attention when he was an art foundation student in Bath in the late 1980s. Sickert had had a long connection with the city: ‘There never was such a place for rest and comfort and leisurely work,’ he wrote following his first visit in 1917. ‘Such country and such town,’ he exclaimed. Sickert settled there briefly in 1918, rapturously describing its ‘incredible’ beauty to friends. And he returned twenty years later, making his last home in neighbouring Bathampton, and it was in Bath that he died in 1942. Brown has called Sickert ‘the grandfather of us all,’ and Sickert, like Brown, painted numerous oil paintings of the town’s vibrant, everyday street life – works that were very well received in the press. ‘He gives us colour,’ declared The Times in 1919, ‘that might be pretty if it were not beautiful.’ This observation distills, perhaps, the very essence of all successful Impressionist painting.
6
Summer Morning: the Broken Trumpet
oil on canvas 89 x 76 cms 35 x 30 ins
When Peter Brown returned to Bath in the mid 1990s after a number of years studying and then working in Manchester, the NEAC was already in his sights through Sickert’s link, and he was keen to become a member. In Manchester, however, he had been painting in a postmodern, almost abstract expressionist manner – large squares and rectangles of pure colour. It was a very intellectual, structured way of working that was slowly leading him into a dead end. Back in Bath he suddenly found himself simply drawing once more, without questioning what he was doing. He just wanted to get on and do it again, to ‘see and put’, as one of his art teachers once memorably phrased it – something he does very well indeed: seeing and then putting it down in paint, be it out on the street in a downpour of rain or in his warm home beside a crackling fire. But as he observes, There is one clear difference between the two situations – one of control. Out in the elements it is a battle against time – before the canvas surface gets so wet you can’t make the paint stick, so I always say you have to slap it on. Inside you have more time to mix colour and to apply it. The challenge then is to keep the guttural, not to overwork it. You can fiddle for a year with a tiny brush trying to answer every mark in front of you, but it is far better for me to answer as broadly as possible. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could do a painting in one brush stroke? It’s like painting a crowd of people – forget the individual bodies, the faces, arms, legs … what does the crowd, the mass of shape, actually look like? What is its colour? It’s form? When I paint I make sure I am always dealing with ‘what does it look like’. This is what he calls his ‘visceral’ instinct as an artist – painting from the heart, not the head, the urge to put down what he sees on paper or canvas as quickly and as urgently and as well as he can, an approach that sometimes leads him to suddenly realize he’s painting the same scene over again. Extraordinarily prolific and experimental, his studio is stacked with canvases and boards – for he is always exploring, looking, rediscovering as he reacts and responds to the sights around him. Gregarious, easy going, charming and chatty, he is a familiar character on the streets of Bath, always painting, always willing to talk with passers-by. It is no surprise that when he first started selling his work off Bath’s street corners as he worked, he soon enjoyed considerable success.
7
The Blue Room: Lisa, Hattie, Ned and Ella
oil on canvas 89 x 76 cms 35 x 30 ins
It was only five years after his return to Bath that, in 1998, Brown was elected a member of the NEAC. ‘I really felt like I’d arrived then,’ he recalls. Under the direction of Ken Howard, the NEAC was enjoying an exciting period of renewal as it re-established its reputation, and Brown soon found himself on the Club’s organizing committee. Their meetings were often held in the studios of other committee members, and Brown reflects how incredible it felt to suddenly find himself propelled into this world of established, recognized, successful artists. It is appropriate that now, as the new President of the NEAC himself, Brown should have taken his palette and easel to Suffolk. It was this coastline, around Southwold and Walberswick, that Philip Wilson Steer, one of the NEAC’s founding figures and a brilliant early British Impressionist, helped make popular as an artistic destination in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Whilst Brown’s recent interior paintings are worked on over many days and sometimes weeks, out of doors he aims, like his Impressionist predecessors, to paint a picture in – as he puts it – ‘one hit’, if he possibly can. These new works have a freshness and spontaneity that captures the breezy sunlight of the east coast of England – but they are paintings that are based on years of hard work, careful observation and constant practice.
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Combe Park, Christmas oil on canvas 122 x 61 cms 48 x 24 ins
It is this hard graft aspect of the artist’s life that Brown wants to highlight first and foremost in the period of his presidency at the NEAC. ‘Above all,’ he explains, ‘I want the members of the NEAC to do what they do best – to paint as best they can because that is what it is all about.’ This, he believes, will be achieved by drawing upon and vocalizing the expertise and experience of the membership – through artist-led tours of their annual exhibition, panel discussions and lectures, as well the display of members’ sketchbooks, which, like Sickert, he sees as the foundation of painting. He also has ideas for the inclusion of featured works by prominent past members, the publication of attractive new coffee-table books highlighting their members’ work, and new prizes to encourage emerging talent in painting and drawing. His aim, above all, ‘is to show the important position the Club has had in the development of British painting since those early days when its membership including many of the leading artists of the day’ – people like John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and Augustus John, as well as modernists such as Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, Edward Wadsworth and Richard Eurich. It is an ambitious plan, and one that deserves every success. David Boyd Haycock
author and curator
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Ella, Night, The Studio oil on canvas 102 x 91 cms 40 x 36 ins
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Ned and the New Puppy on Ella's Bed, January 2019
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Broken Morning Light, the Studio, Summer 2018
oil on canvas 51 x 64 cms 20 x 25 ins
oil on canvas 89 x 51 cms 30 x 24 ins
13
The Studio, Lamp Light
oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins
12
Ella and Ned
14
The Inheritance
oil on board 30 x 25 cms 12 x 10 ins
oil on board 30 x 25 cms 12 x 10 ins
15
The Studio, Morning Light, Summer 2018
oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins
summer in southwold
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The Bank, Southwold
oil on canvas 64 x 76 cms 25 x 30 ins
17
Southwold Beach, Summer Cloud Shadows
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Down on the Beach, Southwold
oil on canvas 51 x 64 cms 20 x 25 ins
oil on canvas 61 x 61 cms 24 x 24 ins
19
Moto, Alice Maud, Snow Goose and Boy Dutta, Black Shore, Southwold
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Black Shore, Heavy Skies
oil on canvas 89 x 76 cms 35 x 30 ins
oil on canvas 76 x 64 cms 30 x 25 ins
21
Black Shore, Setting Sun
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Black Shore, Southwold, Clear Summer's Morning
oil on board 41 x 30 cms 16 x 12 ins
oil on board 41 x 30 cms 16 x 12 ins
23
Southwold Beach, July Morning
24
Southwold, Summer 2018
oil on canvas 51 x 64 cms 20 x 25 ins
oil on canvas 76 x 89 cms 30 x 35 ins
25
North Parade and Pier, Summer Evening
26
Black Shore, Southwold, A Windy August Morning
oil on board 20 x 61 cms 8 x 24 ins
oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins
27
Pin Mill, 2017
oil on canvas 64 x 51 cms 25 x 20 ins
on the broads
28
Seagulls and Chips, Aldeburgh
29
Thurne Regatta
oil on board 30 x 41 cms 12 x 16 ins
oil on canvas 51 x 64 cms 20 x 25 ins
30
Two Mallards Going for a Stroll, Thurne Dyke
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Through the Reeds, Thurne, Norfolk
oil on canvas 41 x 51 cms 16 x 20 ins
oil on canvas 64 x 64 cms 25 x 25 ins
32
Horsey Wind Pump
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Horsey Dyke, May
oil on board 25 x 30 cms 10 x 12 ins
oil on canvas 64 x 64 cms 25 x 25 ins
35
Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk, Hot Summer's Day
oil on board 30 x 41 cms 12 x 16 ins
34
Thurne, Norfolk Broads, The Blue Tarpaulin
oil on board 41 x 30 cms 16 x 12 ins
36
Summer Afternoon, Horsey Dyke
oil on board 41 x 30 cms 16 x 12 ins
37
Willows at Horsey, 2017
oil on canvas 89 x 76 cms 35 x 30 ins
in town
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Grayson’s Piccadilly
oil on canvas 51 x 64 cms 20 x 25 ins
39
Piccadilly Circus, Summer Afternoon, 2015
oil on canvas 152 x 190 cms 60 x 743â „4 ins
40
Sun Through the Planes, The Aldwych
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Summer Lunchtime, Sicilian Avenue
oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins
oil on canvas 91 x 122 cms 36 x 48 ins
above:
opposite:
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Waterloo Bridge, Winter Afternoon
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Construction of Heron Tower and the Pinnacle, 2010
oil on canvas 30 x 91 cms 12 x 36 ins
oil on canvas 122 x 91 cms 48 x 357â „8 ins
44
Cheapside, Grey Morning, 2014
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Westminster Abbey, The East Gate (Rain), 2014
oil on canvas 76 x 38 cms 30 x 15 ins
oil on canvas 89 x 76 cms 35 x 30 ins
46
Portobello Road, Autumn Afternoon Light oil on board 30 x 41 cms 16 x 20 ins
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Portobello Road, September Afternoon oil on board 30 x 41 cms 12 x 16 ins
48
Vauxhall Bridge, Bright November Morning oil on board 20 x 61 cms 8 x 24 ins
49
The Bello, Autumn Light oil on board 20 x 61 cms 8 x 24 ins
peter brown
PN E AC R P RO I P S R BA (H O N )
Born 1967
Ar t Educ ation
Collec tions
Group E xhibitions include
1992/93
PGCE (FE), University of Greenwich
2016
New Perspectives, Messums, Wiltshire
1987/90
BA Fine Art, Manchester Polytechnic
2015
1986/7
Diploma Foundation Studies, Bath College of Higher Education
The National Library of Wales; The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; The Holburne Museum, Bath; The Building of Bath Museum, Bath; The Bowerman Collection; House of Fraser; The RAC Club; Howard de Walden Estate; The Target Corporation; The Drapers’ Company; Sir John Sunderland; Battersea Power Station Development Company
Varanasi, 4-man show at Indar Pasricha Fine Arts, London
2013
Five Painters in India, The Tryon Gallery, London
Awards include 2019
Elected President of the NEAC (New English Art Club)
2018
The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
Memberships
2017
The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
New English Art Club
Public Choice (New English Art Club)
Royal Society of British Artists (Honorary)
The Le Clerc Fowle Medal
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
Royal Institute of Oil Painters
The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
Pastel Society
Runner up, Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize
Bath Society of Artists
The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
One Man E xhibitions
2013 2012 2011
Painter-Stainers’ Award (New English Art Club)
2019
Messum’s (At Home and Abroad)
2017
Messum’s (East Coast and London)
2nd Prize, The RAC Centenary Exhibition
2016
The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2009
The Critics’ Choice (New English Art Club)
2008
Prince of Wales Award for Portrait Drawing
2014
2006
First Artist-in-Residence at the Savoy Hotel, London
2013
2005
Hunting Art Prizes: the Drawing Prize Crossgate Gallery Purchase Prize
50
Fortnum & Mason and the Christmas Lights
2002
oil on board 30 x 15 cms 12 x 6 ins
The Arts Club Award (New English Art Club)
2001
The Arts Club Award (Pastel Society) Selected to be hung at the National Gallery from the 2001 RP Show
2000
CDLIII
ISBN 978-1-910993-45-3 Publication No: CDLIII Published by David Messum Fine Art © David Messum Fine Art
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Photography: Steve Russell Printed by DLM-Creative
W.H.Patterson Memorial Award (New English Art Club)
Messum’s (Paintings of London) Messum’s (en route London to Paris) Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Messum’s (Home and Abroad) Messum’s (Paintings of India) 2012
Messum’s Cork Street, London
2011
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2010
Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2009
Messum’s, Cork Street, London Alexander Meddowes, Edinburgh
2008
Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2007
Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2006
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Messum’s, Cork Street, London
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
1999
The Llewellyn Alexander Award (New English Art Club)
1998
The Bristol Fine Art Oil Painting Prize (Royal West of England Academy)
2005
The Tom Rice Gallery Award (Pastel Society)
2004
Messum’s, Cork Street, London
2003
W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London
1997
The Saint Cuthbert’s Mill Award (Royal Society of British Artists)
1996
The Pastel Society Non-Members Award
Albany Gallery, Cardiff Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2003
West Sussex, Champs Hill, Pulborough
2002
W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2000
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
1999–2010
Albany Gallery, Cardiff; Alresford Gallery, Alresford; The Arts Club, London; Champs Hill, Pulborough (courtesy of the Bowermans); Fountain Fine Art, Llandeilo; Island Fine Arts, Isle of Wight; Red Rag Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold; W.H.Patterson Fine Arts, London
Public ations Bath Paintings by Peter Brown, published: Sansom & Company 2015, ISBN 978 1 911408 28 4 London: Paintings by Peter Brown, hardback, published: Sansom and Company 2015, ISBN 978 1 908326 80 5 My Indian Travels, by Peter Brown, hardback, published 2013, ISBN 978 1 908486 41 7 Brown’s Bath: The Work of Peter Brown, hardback, published 2008, ISBN 978 0 9559727 0 6 Exhibition catalogues (x19) 2002–2019
DVDs Painting Arles APV Films 2016 Painting Varanasi Neale Worley 2016 Peter Brown: Oil Sketches APV Films 2013
Broadc as ts A Picture of Bath, BBC1 for Inside Out series, September 2004 A Picture of Bath, BBC Radio Bristol for ‘A Sense of Place’ series, May 2002
peter brow n
www.messums.com www.messumswiltshire.com
Messum’s 2019
MESSUMS
peter brown