This month on #PeopleOfPaperblanks we had the pleasure of sitting down with Peter Dorey, an established landscape painter in the UK. We chat to him all about his current projects, where he gets his inspiration and his plans for the future.
Check out the full interview below.
Tell us a bit about the art you like to create and the materials that you use.
I’m an artist who likes to paint. I paint a wide variety of subjects and styles but at the moment these are mainly a mixture of landscapes and abstracts. Some of these abstracts are from conceptual ideas.
How did you start out as an artist and what journey did you take to get to where you are now?
I’ve been interested in art since I was young. During my upbringing, I was always working on different creative projects. I attended art college for a year and studied design at university. I have explored different mediums of expression over the years. I have a friend who started painting in oils and we would have sessions of oil painting practising in her garage. I liked the idea of oils but found it to be too slow a drying time, so I moved to acrylics. From then on the painting seemed to stick and I began to focus on improving my skill. After about five years, I decided to take painting more seriously and now I’m working on different professional projects.
As an artist, everyone has their own unique style. Do you ever explore new or different styles?
I’ve been working on some new styles recently. The most recent one is an expressionist/impressionist style. This technique uses looser brush strokes and more saturated colours. I am also exploring other ways to represent the landscapes I see. I feel a lot of the local scenes have been painted so many times before and I am working on new ways to put a unique and hopefully unseen expression onto these places.
In my abstract work, I aim to steer away from the “classic” landscape and explore how to represent life in a different way.
You have recently started an “Emotions Project.” Can you tell us about this venture and one of the pieces from it?
The emotions project started with the idea as to whether I could directly capture a person’s feeling of emotion onto a canvas. With more thought, I realised that the feeling of an emotion can be divided into three parts – a beginning, a middle and an end.
At the start, I was interested in the beginning of the emotion as this had the most energy. After many different paint sketches exploring this idea with different emotions, I came to three final pieces for hope, joy and having an idea.
One of my first pictures on this experiment is called Idea Spark. Idea Spark is the artwork using the emotion of just having an idea.
Firstly, the Idea Spark, to me, is an explosive concept. One that shoots into your mind without a moment to lose. I’ve chosen to represent this by using these colours and forms to create this explosive representation. The movement of line and shape gives the feeling of this.
The small colour palette has been chosen to minimise complexity and increase readability of the painting.
Having created a new idea, I have found that there are many things to think about and this excitement drives the different colours.
The black background is the empty mind before the idea arrives.
What is your favourite piece that you have created and why?
It’s a hard one to say as each of the paintings have their own charm. Although, currently my favourite has to be Atmospheric Overpass. This one is of a road overpass, an unusual subject, but the interest is in the early morning light filtering through the trees. This image also has another meaning that appeals to me. The location of this image/overpass is not in a pleasant area. Dark, unnerving, cold concrete forms. I like the idea that the contrasting light represents a hope style narrative, but even though this darkened area (a representation for the sad parts of life) can be dark and scary sometimes, the light (representing good or hope) is always trying to break through.
What other artists do you take inspiration from or admire the work of?
There are so many talented artists, and I am always gaining ideas, inspiration and connections from them. I keep watching and listening out for artists, filmmakers, photographers and creatives in general as I find you never know where the next bit of inspiration will come.
The artists whose work has changed the way I engage with art would be Pollock, Rothko, Monet, Dali, Van Gogh, Alex Colville, Patrick Caulfield, Edward Hopper and Jack Vettriano.
I’m sure there’s more but they are the ones that come to mind as I write this.
Apart from painting, do you have any other hidden talents or hobbies?
I like to create music; playing several different instruments. I’ve written different songs in the past and recorded a concept album. Music has been used frequently in my artwork and I think there’s an interesting connection between music and art in the form of patterns, rhythm and expression.
What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
It is difficult to pin down one moment as different projects all have their great bits.
Where do you hope to see yourself in five years’ time?
Developing and exploring more artistic endeavours, refining who I am as an artist and working on larger projects. Also, I hope to have a few more exhibitions under my belt.
Finally, you are stranded on a desert island – what three things do you bring with you?
The painter’s answer: canvases, paint, brushes.
The serious answer: a boat, petrol and water.
The answer to which this question is aimed: a sketchbook, pencil and a guitar.
If you want to support Peter along his artistic journey, check our his profiles and website using the links below.
