“JUST look at the state of the bloody Pennines!”
It’s an odd and rather humorous title for Peter Brook’s big exhibition at the AC Gallery, Byram Street, Huddersfield.
The exhibition, which runs until next Friday, once more shows us a great deal of his love affair with those hills, particularly when they have a white covering.
“My pictures are a good deal to do with the weather, whether it’s snowing and what kind of snow,” says the Brighouse artist
“Softly falling snow with big flakes drifting down or soft, slushy snow or horizontal snow making a whiteout. Snow adds to the drama.”
And it certainly does with paintings like A Hard Time For Me, But Easy For The Dog, as the artist trudges up the hill through the snow with his sheepdog well ahead.
But they are not all snow pictures in this exhibition. Good Evening, with its sheep and shades of green is a delightful composition and so, too, is his Free Range, with its hens.
A white cottage by the sea with washing on the line gets the longest title. In tiny script on the painting, we read: “We have always enjoyed a summer holiday in a cottage, but we never did find this place by the sea somewhere. Looks OK though.”
Peter’s use of paint and creation of atmosphere are legendary, a typical example being the ruined farmhouse, which has retained its TEAS sign on the wall and gets the title Closed For Tea.
Aside from the original there are many limited edition prints in this show. I particularly enjoyed two contrasting ones, Late Evening, Skye and A Real Bronte Sunset.
This is a very large exhibition, with hundreds of works.
Also, three books on his work are on sale, as well as the Tate Gallery’s 2009 desk diary, which contains Peter’s painting Sheep Coming In.
The artist says “I prefer to do something my own way. I’ve always painted what I liked. Luckily, most of the time other people have liked it, too.”
And the many folk who have liked Peter’s work in the past should certainly find some enjoyment at the AC Gallery.
