Peter John Reid

I paint because I love it. I love the abstract qualities of Impressionistic painting: the different loose strokes of the brush: the diffusion of colours through colour; the layers of textured paint over textured paint. I love the abstract but need to balance it with some connection or representation of the world I live in. I paint mostly from nature, and I often find the most inspiring subject not to be the grand panorama but an isolated small view where the light and forms create brief moments in time that I have been lucky enough to witness, and photograph. You never know when you'll see them, and you don't often see them again, but if you're always looking, you will see another. Plein-aire painting is spectacular, but I find that many of these moments are fleeting and I can't paint quick enough to capture them. Monet, and many of his contemporaries, would work on a painting only at certain times of the day to obtain similar lighting on the subject: I believe they would have loved to work with today's digital photography, capturing thousand of moments.

I paint mostly in the studio using multiple photo reference, working directly on the canvas with only a very loose sketch. I don't often work with a single image and I rarely worry about whether it matches the photo, only that I am moved by the end result. I create with both sides of the brain and often amaze the right side with some wild, appearing thoughtless strokes of the brush that has borne unexpected fruit. The easier it comes, the better the painting is; whether my judgement is clouded with the struggle or that the easy ones are more left brain, I don't know. Beyond the mechanical (right) side of art which can be judged, lies the left side which we can only judge for ourselves. I paint to please myself but the final verdict goes to the viewer: whether it's technically perfect or not, it is only as good as its ability to connect and move someone.

I look forward to how I will paint tomorrow.

Peter John Reid
Born: Plymouth, England
Living in Grey County Ontario since 1989

Contact information —
ph. (519) 794 3442
e-mail: peterjohnreid@mac.com
website: www.peterjohnreid.com