Acclaimed artist reflects on an international career that all began in Wigan

And a successful career that has seen the 67-year-old commissioned by the Savoy and exhibiting internationally all started in Wigan.

Indeed the spoil heaps of Pemberton Colliery and rugby matches at Central Park were frequent subject matters in decades past.

Up Holland-born, Peter attended Holland Moor Primary and Glenburn High School in Skelmersdale and it was here that he began to hone his artistic skills.

He was once asked to write an essay but got into bother because he created a cartoon strip instead, although he was later delighted to see it displayed, nonetheless at a parents’ evening!​

A holiday job working for Abbott and Smith furniture store in Pemberton, where he eventually became a van driver after passing his driving test gave him the chance to see parts of Wigan and commit them to paper.

When asked where he’s from he says “Wigan” and many of his early sketches were of local street scenes and features like Mesnes Park.

He was also heavily involved in Wigan Swimming Club for several years.

And even after he had moved away he would be back at Wigan rugby’s ground for the Boxing Day and Good Friday fixtures, not least because he could get so close to the action when drawing.

Critics say that he is a passionate visual communicator, whose talent is revealed by his ability to engage totally with his subject yet remain at ease with where the activity may lead him.

Following a foundation year at Birmingham Polytechnic, Peter successfully undertook a BA in Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic during the late 1970s and now works from his studio in Birkdale, Southport where he also holds his popular art classes twice a week.

“Drawing was something I was always interested in from an early age.

“At secondary school I was encouraged by an inspirational art teacher Stan Bowestead who was taught by Bernard Fleetwood-Walker, who was taught by William Orpen, who was taught by Sickert, who trained with Whistler!

"He was the person who made sure I opted for art at school and then studied at art school.”

Although Peter originally gained places at two universities to study geography, with a view to a career in forestry, the irresistible pull towards painting eventually directed him elsewhere.

“My love of painting meant I accepted a place on a foundation course in art at Birmingham Polytechnic, from there it was a sure thing I would try to succeed as an artist.

"The urge to create and the thrill of exhibiting had me hooked.

"After my degree the easy option would have been to go straight into teaching, but I found studio space with Yorkshire Art Space Society and found a London agent.

"Very slowly I began to build a career with the support of a very understanding wife.”

Determined to succeed, Peter found the stamina to carry on through tough times and built up his confidence by developing his own artistic handwriting that eventually characterized his distinctive style and approach and earned him a string of commissions ranging from the Savoy Hotel Group in London to Pilkington Glass in St Helens.

Winner of the Stowells Trophy in 1978 at The Royal Academy in London kick-started a series of solo and group exhibitions that included featuring in a showcase of British Art in Abu Dhabi and Dubai over in the United Arab Emirates and displaying his talent at innumerable venues around the UK including London’s Mall Galleries and Theatr Clwyd in North Wales.

Chairman of The Southport Palette Club (formed in 1921), Peter’s work is a reflection of his life experience, localities he has lived, sites he has visited and those personal and spiritual concerns that mean most to him.

The immmediacy of his much sought-after pastels recording daily life in Southport and surrounding areas has since become an instantly recognisable calling card across the region.

“I first began to use soft pastels to add some limited colour to charcoal drawings, then more and more as a way to help in preparatory sketches for oil paintings.

"When I had left college pastels became a very convenient medium where studio space was limited.

"They grew more important and pastel work became what I was best known for.

"I liked the immediacy of applying the brightness of the pigment: never rubbing to blend, any blending was done by the overlaying of pastel in crosshatched strokes.

"More recently I have begun to use oil pastel, a medium I hadn’t much time for until I began to use the French Sennelier brand.

"It is a much superior oil pastel to every other I have tried, with a beautiful creamy texture and a great range of colour.

"Some of the textures created are very similar to painting, providing a very painterly medium.

"In recent years I have used them to produce both objective and abstract works.”

Widely exhibited, Peter has work in prestigious commercial and private collections at home and abroad as well as artwork to be found in schools, hospitals, children’s centres and libraries.

“In the ’90s my studio was in a local school, paid for by providing art workshops for the children and producing murals. Word spread and I produced close to 100 murals around the North West and as far as Malvern.

"Most were completed with the participation of children and or community groups.”

His track record confirms his recognition as a skilled and articulate artist.

The common denominator across this diverse body of work remains Peter’s emotional response to a subject, whether it is a memory of childhood that informs a street scene, or sunlight bursting through cloud to highlight a hillside, or the colour, tone and textures of the more conceptual work of recent years.

“On leaving college my work was almost entirely based on intimate interiors featuring family and friends, along with a few industrial commissions.

"Being a keen walker landscape became another subject for me, usually populated with fellow walkers.

“Later these became pure celebration of the beauty of landscape. For a period in the early 2000s I was almost exclusively active in community art, running workshops and painting murals, however, the money for many of these types of projects seemed to largely disappear following the 2008-banking crisis.

“Fortunately I was straight back in to painting for myself, mainly landscape, some more experimental.

"These experimental works have now become more abstract and at the start have no reference, though later in the process they might remind me of a place or the ‘feeling’ of a place or moment.”

The human figure in domestic settings were among Peter’s earliest work and this interest in human activity became a passion he went on to investigate further in the work place and urban environment.

The opportunity to paint and draw the figure in motion encouraged Peter to also explore sport, especially rugby and cricket, exercising a distinct graphic element matched by occasional splashes of physical intensity.

“The crown green bowling paintings were motivated by early memories of old men carrying their little leather bags, and the sounds of excitement behind the high fences of pub bowling greens,” he said.

Peter’s recent work has been more experimental and improvisational, often painted while listening to music and sharing their titles with jazz tunes.

By abandoning the earlier prescriptive anchoring narratives of his "realist” pastels, Peter is now able to aesthetically engineer a scaffold of abstract geometric shapes and colour that he assertively articulates onto paper or canvas.

“I wanted to ‘create’ rather than ‘recreate’. Though many of the works suggest a ‘place’ to me they are not intended as a visual record.

"They represent my attempt to simplify landscape, hoping to give the impression of immersion in the landscape, rather than rely on a limited view.

“I love the challenge of creating with marks, colour and imagination rather than dutifully following tone and colour to directly record a place or situation.”

A number of these works were produced in an attitude of prayer, influenced by Peter’s Christian faith.

In tandem with his more personal studio practice Peter has also fulfilled diverse corporate commissions including those from The Savoy Hotel Group, Ocean Transport and Trading plc, Ciba Specialty Chemicals and Pilkington Glass plc.

“For someone to appreciate your work enough to commission you to work on a project is a great compliment.

"Many of the industrial commissions provided me the opportunity to work in environments normally closed to most people.

"It has also provided me the opportunity to contrast the figure with sometimes a very harsh environment; the heat in a glass making plant; the steam and cold in a tannery; the noise of a cotton mill and the sound and confinement of a ships engine room.”

Having been immersed in art and creativity for all his adult life, Peter inevitably now faces the dilemma common to most practicing artists: “Finding the time to pursue the development of my painting. I feel there is so much more I want to do and so much more I can achieve”.

However, the satisfaction of creating art that is unique and innovative is still the main driving force behind Peter’s craft and judging by current activities certainly shows no sign of letting up.

One of four brothers, Peter is married to Jean and they have have three daughters and seven grandchildren. He still has family in the Wigan area.

You can catch up with Peter’s latest activities at www.peterowen-artist.co.uk and peterowenartist on instagram or in person at his “Open Studio”, Unit 2, 50a Everton Road, Birkdale, Southport, PR8 4BY, on November 11 and 12, from 10am to 4.00pm.