Peter Joyce - New Work

Peter Joyce owns stout walking boots. These are an essential part of his painting life. He is a keen walker and it is through walking he has come to know his subject well.

Joyce’s paintings focus on the physical land itself, its detail and its earth-bound qualities. Many of Joyce’s paintings are named after actual walks. Joyce’s paintings for the most part are abstract. Over many years he has invented a symbolic language which stands for land forms and shapes. These, he says, have been built on rules he has discovered for himself. Some forms translate easily, while others remain more elusive. Although there is no intention on his part for there to be a direct translation between what is seen in the landscape and what appears on the canvas, some general connections may be observed. Bold linear line, sometimes curved, seem to symbolize the coast and land boundaries, while less weighty graphite marks become paths and track ways. Horizontal striations, in either paint or charcoal, denote strip-lychnets, ploughed furrows or rows of crops. Figures of eight, which complete on themselves, are ploughed marks in the fields. Other more solid shapes, such as oval, circle or rectangle, originate from land sources such as small walled fields, round sheep pens, shell-marks or prehistoric artefacts.

It is from both the natural and tilled land, from farms and quarry that Joyce draws his material.

Extract from ‘Re-inventing the Landscape’ by Vivienne Light, Canterton Books.

Joyce’s work has been exhibited widely over the last 20 years and his work is held in numerous public and private collections worldwide including USA, Canada, India, Saudi Arabia and throughout Europe.

Artworks

For more information about this exhibition please contact us.