Peter Harper

Personal details:

Peter Harper studied at Birmingham College of Art in the late fifties. After a career as an art lecturer, he gave up teaching and has been a fulltime artist since 1990. Peter exhibits regularly in England and France and has also shown work in Belgium and Germany. He is a member of La Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris and of the Birmingham Pastel Society. Over the years, he has won numerous awards for oils and pastels.
The Swiss publishing company 'Who’s Who in International Art' has published a recent painting in its series of greetings cards entitled: 'The great and the new artists of the Twentieth Century.' 
In 1996, the French art magazine 'Univers des Arts' published an article by the critic Nicole Lamothe in its special edition 'Les artistes et leur atelier' (Artists and their studios). [See the translation below.]
In 1997, a multi-media studio in France invited Peter to be part of the launch of their new website called 'Artactif'. This takes the form of a directory of selected artists who practise in Europe. It is published in English, French and German. 
In 1998, Peter was invited to exhibit, in addition to the information page in the directory, a selection of 13 paintings. These can be viewed at the following web address: http://www.artactif.com/harper/expo.htm This publicity has resulted in a greatly increased demand for paintings from exhibition organisers, particularly in France. 

TRANSLATION OF THE ARTICLE IN THE SPECIAL EDTITION OF UNIVERS DES ARTS: -
'LES ARTISTES ET LEUR ATELIER.' ~ PETER HARPER: the calm voice of nature

From abstract art which he practised for around fifteen years, Peter Harper has retained a need for synthesis. The vast perspectives of his landscapes evoke the serenity and the peaceful joy of Nature as she really is and these he expresses with a fine sensitivity.
Peter Harper divides his time between England and France, discovering in each of these countries a different music, a different colour range and a different atmosphere which he conveys with extreme accuracy. With a multiplicity of lively touches, his brush modulates the subtle tones of his personal palette where bluish mauves and warm ochres dominate but are also highly modified. 
These skillfully convey the shimmering of the countryside under the full summer sun or the subtle quivering of a lake at sunset ........ ("Actually 'Sunrise' - " adds Peter).
Peter Harper’s work is tinged with romanticism and possesses the velvet softness and the charm of pastels. In fact, the artist often uses these for the original sketch of the subject and afterwards carries it out in oils. 
What is predominant in his well organised but lively compositions is the indisputable poetry of nature.

Personal Statement:

"Since 1990, most of my work has been concerned with landscape - even when I work on objects or figures. 
It is the structural and spatial 'landscape' aspect which attracts me. I have also always been fascinated by water in all its aspects. Whilst not necessarily overtly evident in every painting, it is a strong element in what draws me to a particular landscape. The reflective quality of water, its transparence, its changing surface and its effect on the atmosphere are all aspects which I try to explore in my work as well as water’s power to carve various forms into the structure of the earth itself and into rock. I am also acutely aware of light and colour on water and I try to use colour to express my response to the light and the atmosphere.

The feel of a particular place plays a key role in my work, embracing emotion, memory and experience. This 'sense of place', which is a characteristic of British landscape painting, is of great significance to me as I firmly believe that one has to know a landscape intimately in order to paint it meaningfully.

Currently I am involved in two contrasting landscape areas: In England, much of my work is done using the Severn valley up and down stream from Bewdley. I paint the valley because of its atmosphere, the richness of its growth, its sandstone rocks in which the river has carved its path. I have also been known to make forays into the Wyre Forest around Dowles Brook and into the Teme valley with its hills, woods and farmlands in search of new and interesting stretches of water.

In France, it is the water of the flat, wind-swept expanses of the Camargue in the Rhone delta which attracts me. There I am drawn by the intensity of the light, the wild contrasts between winter and summer, the wildlife and the harshness of the environment throughout the year. I am particularly preoccupied with the Camargue at sunrise throughout the seasons, with the long shadows cast by the new sun when it glances over every object however small, resulting in a mysterious and disconcerting disruption of the sense of scale. Despite the mist which occasionally rises from the Mediterranean sea creating new mysteries, the light remains intense and forms multicoloured halos around the sun.

The strong differences between these two areas appeal to two different sides of my personality. The homely enclosed rich fertility of the Severn valley where the water is always in the atmosphere contrasts with the wild, apparently barren salt-marshes of the Camargue with their harsh, unforgiving climate, both in summer and winter. Another contrast that interests me is evident in the effect that these two landscapes have on the very different patterns of human habitation and activity."

Peter Harper