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Peter Horrocks - painter
Peter is opening his studio for you to watch him demonstrating aspects of his practice and also giving you an opportunity to explore some of the processes yourself. Open: 11am to 4pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday Visit him at: Copperfields, 33 Old Eardisley Road, Kington, Herefordshire HR5 3EA 01544 230919 |
Born Oldham, Lancashire 1945. Studied Fine Art at Leicester College of Art, Chelsea School of Art and a Post Graduate Teaching Cert. at London University. Began his teaching career in London and moved to Herefordshire in 1971. Retired from teaching to continue his own studio practice in 2004. His work has been exhibited widely in Herefordshire and Shropshire as well as nationally.
I always feel drawn to the abstract qualities of fragments in the landscape and in particular its geological structures. This has led me to explore the use of natural earth pigments, clays, graphite, slate and charcoal dust in my practice. I have mined raw ochres from 300 feet down the iron ore mine at the Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean and collect others on my travels in the UK and abroad.
The dry pigment is rubbed into the surface of an acid free board. The textural quality of the surface is often distressed so that the pigments react in different ways and create a greater variety in the depth of tone. Powdered charcoal and graphite are also used. Any structural lines are incised into the surface with scribers and knives. The line becomes a physical part of the work and holds pigment within the grooves created.
More recent works use the earth pigments mixed with water and an acrylic binder. Layers of gesso, plaster, pigment, clay etc. are applied to plywood panels or canvas. Surfaces are layered, revealing colours beneath the surface by scraping, rubbing and sanding.
Drawing is a regular part of my practice and is used as an act of discovery as well as a preparatory process towards finished pieces. “The works themselves are marks I leave behind, and in that sense, are traces where I have been in the creative process ”.
• Joint Exhibition organiser for “In The Minds Eye”, Sidney Nolan Trust 2012
• Visual Arts Selection Panel Member, Courtyard Centre for the Arts, Hereford
• Invited to join the group of artists “Abstract Edge” in 2005
• hART (Herefordshire Arts Week) Steering Group Member 2004-2011 .
• hART participated in Open Studios every year since 2002
• Steering group member, Marches Makers Festival, Kington, 2018/19
I always feel drawn to the abstract qualities of fragments in the landscape and in particular its geological structures. This has led me to explore the use of natural earth pigments, clays, graphite, slate and charcoal dust in my practice. I have mined raw ochres from 300 feet down the iron ore mine at the Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean and collect others on my travels in the UK and abroad.
The dry pigment is rubbed into the surface of an acid free board. The textural quality of the surface is often distressed so that the pigments react in different ways and create a greater variety in the depth of tone. Powdered charcoal and graphite are also used. Any structural lines are incised into the surface with scribers and knives. The line becomes a physical part of the work and holds pigment within the grooves created.
More recent works use the earth pigments mixed with water and an acrylic binder. Layers of gesso, plaster, pigment, clay etc. are applied to plywood panels or canvas. Surfaces are layered, revealing colours beneath the surface by scraping, rubbing and sanding.
Drawing is a regular part of my practice and is used as an act of discovery as well as a preparatory process towards finished pieces. “The works themselves are marks I leave behind, and in that sense, are traces where I have been in the creative process ”.
• Joint Exhibition organiser for “In The Minds Eye”, Sidney Nolan Trust 2012
• Visual Arts Selection Panel Member, Courtyard Centre for the Arts, Hereford
• Invited to join the group of artists “Abstract Edge” in 2005
• hART (Herefordshire Arts Week) Steering Group Member 2004-2011 .
• hART participated in Open Studios every year since 2002
• Steering group member, Marches Makers Festival, Kington, 2018/19
