Creative Conversations at Chalk Gallery – ART WAVE 2024

I admire Peter’s genuine ethos and unique expression in art. His portraits, paintings, and drawings have a thoughtful and carefully considered composition, where objects and clothing reflect the personality of the subjects.
Peter and I met through Brighton Draws Men, a life drawing session I run at the Sussex County Arts Club in Brighton. We have also often attended life drawing sessions at Draw Brighton together. I have chosen a print that responds to my friend’s exquisite portrait painting: the diagonal emphasis, the choice of colours, and possibly even the melancholic mood. The subject of seating and the staged nature are depicted through a vase with flowers and an ottoman, or through the manicured planted gardens and a wrought iron  bench

Peter James Field

Peter James Field is an artist and illustrator from Brighton, with 19 years of experience under his belt. He’s worked with big names like Time Magazine, The New York Times, The FT, Vanity Fair, and Penguin Books. Peter was highlighted in the ‘Guardian Guide to Drawing’ and even did a series of ‘How to Draw’ short films for BBC Bitesize. His work has been showcased at the National Portrait Gallery’s portrait award four times, including this year’s exhibition that runs until late October, and he’s been featured in The Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual show four times too. In 2020, Peter was a contestant on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year.

www.peterjamesfield.co.uk.

Peter’s words:
I first met Alex 15 years ago at a wedding. He was wearing a colourful suit he’d made himself. He was very friendly to me, and I took an instant and strong liking to him.
Alex, I later learned, had been the singer in a 90s pop group called Acacia, which had been dropped by a major label before releasing any material. The band featured other members who would go on to great success – including record producer Guy Sigsworth (Bjork, Alanis Morrisette, Britney Spears) and Imogen Heap, who would go on to be a Grammy nominated solo artist and collaborate with Taylor Swift. Nilere himself pursued a solo career as ‘The Blackmoth’, without mainstream success.
I saw Alex a couple of times in the intervening years, and he remained, to my mind, an absolutely ideal potential portrait sitter. He embodied an interesting contradiction: this immaculately turned out dandyish some-time pop singer did not cultivate an icy sense of cool distance. In fact he was very kind and free of ego. There was plenty of intriguing, vulnerable stuff going on behind his fabulous, façade – and I like to paint people about whom I have curiosity.
The initial sitting took place at Alex’s flat in Kilburn. We tried out various attitudes. This was a pose Alex struck very naturally and it resonated with me, embodying that flamboyance/vulnerability contradiction within him. After experimenting with some props and lighting we pulled in a red flower in a golden vase, which seemed to curve towards him in a kind of embrace.
The painting was shortlisted for the 2020 BP Award at the National Portrait Gallery, and subsequently went on loan to Manchester City Art Gallery in 2022.