Woolacombe Bay - North Devon

Peter Kettle

90 x 70 cm | 35 x 27 in


Subject: Landscapes & Nature


Original painting in oil and mixed media (oil, plaster, acrylic and watercolour ink) on canvas. (Canvas stretcher is 2cm).

"A recent visit to Woolacombe Bay in North Devon. I visit and revisit areas of interest to gather the changing light and mood of the landscape. The landscapes of Britain are a perpetual spur for my love of painting. Being able to harness the hostility of the wild together with the peace of the water's edge is a duality I strive to capture in my work. The process is a marriage between the fleeting nuances and the rooted impression of a space experienced, re-visited and conceived in relation to the landscape. I use a range of tools to explore mark-making, and drew early inspiration from the energetic and unique application of materiality of Terry Setch, David Tress and the work of Anselm Kiefer."


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Peter Kettle

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Kettle’s work has the surfaces of well-worn exterior walls, buffeted and corroded with the appearance of having withstood the effects of time and weather – a technique that gives his work an enlivening combination of stoicism and nostalgia.

If one glanced at Kettle’s work for a matter of seconds, it might seem abstract. Quickly, however, a landscape unfolds. A deep green often streaks across the top of the canvas. The implication is the ocean or a night sky, either seems applicable. Look further and we might detect a sort of dance. Each painting has its own internal rhythm. Paint is smeared across the canvas, the trace of a palette knife or similar instrument visible. Drips, drags and smears give the painting body. No wonder Kettle has titled his recent paintings as a sequence of sea shanties. The paintings act as placeholders for songs, for shanties. Human bodies are absent and the paintings are stronger for it; they embody the aftermath of the party, the event, the song. Here, we might draw a comparison with Giorgio De Chirico’s cities, made all the stranger by the lack of human presence. And lastly, a note on Kettle himself. A keen mountaineer and traveller, his artist photo depicts him setting out camping equipment on a snowy mountain. We see a backpack and beside it, three small packages in red, yellow and green. Look at the paintings and these three colours clustered together are a constant. Another trace of human activity, in this case, likely Kettle himself.


More original works by Peter Kettle

Woolacombe Bay - North Devon by Peter Kettle

£1,300.00