Peter Liddle (born 1940) is a British landscape artist and sculptor, known for his allegorical depictions of the British Isles.

Biography

Liddle attended the Nottingham College of Art from around 1957–59 and studied drawing and art history under John Powell and smithing under the silversmith G.K. Kitson. Liddle befriended fellow students

Keith Albarn Keith Albarn (born 28 January 1939 in Nottingham) is an English artist. He is the father of musician Damon Albarn and artist Jessica Albarn. Early life He attended West Bridgford Grammar School. He was a conscientious objector to post-World ...

and his partner, Hazel. After studying, Liddle lived for a time in London where he married the Marshal Scholar Patricia Moyer. He also struck up a close friendship with the adult educationalist,

Frank Turk Frank Turk (1817/18 – July 15, 1887) was an American politician, jurist and entrepreneur. He was noted as a pioneer of the city of San Francisco, California, and Turk Street there was named after him. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and ...

, learning much from his experience of eastern spirituality. The pair met regularly and maintained a correspondence long after Peter left Cornwall and up until Frank's death in 1996. However, with the end of his first marriage in 1969, Peter left Cornwall and after a period of instability settled in the Lake District in 1971. He remarried in 1972 to Sandra Stone (born 1950) and together they had two children Sorrel (Stratford) 1973 and Jude 1975. Peter never fell in with a particular school after leaving Cornwall but exhibited at times with other artists represented by Godfrey Pilkington's renowned

Piccadilly Gallery The Piccadilly Gallery was an art gallery that operated from a number of addresses in London between 1953 and 2007. It was originally founded as the Pilkington Gallery in 1953 by Eve Pilkington and her husband Godfrey Pilkington, with a focus o ...

in the 70s and 80s.

Art

While still living in London Liddle began painting the Cornish coast, three paintings from this period were selected for the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

Summer Exhibition in 1965. Later that year Peter and Patricia relocated to a studio in Cornwall where he began to experiment with acrylic paint, exhibiting regularly with both The Newlyn Society of Artists and the

Penwith Society of Arts The Penwith Society of Arts is an art group formed in St Ives, Cornwall, England, UK, in early 1949 by abstract artists who broke away from the more conservative St Ives School. It was originally led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, a ...

. Two of his closest peers while in Cornwall were the painters

Margo Maeckelberghe Margo Maeckelberghe nee Margaret Oates Try (11 August 1932 – 10 January 2014) was a Cornish Bard and artist. Biography Maeckelberghe was born in Penzance, where she grew up and lived for most of her life. She studied at the Penzance School ...

and

Jack Pender Jack Pender (1918–1998) was a British artist. Pender was born in Mousehole, Cornwall. He started to paint in 1936 and went to the Penzance School of Art in 1938. At the end of the war, he spent a short time in Greece at the Athens School ...

. During this five-year period Liddle's style changed completely. He credits the challenge of the incredible Portholland light in his transition from heavy, textured, oils to whiter, more transparent, acrylics. Liddle is a British painter known for his allegorical depictions of the wild reaches of the British Isles. His paintings can be austere and unsettling, often hinting at something beyond the landscape they superficially represent. The award-winning author Sarah Hall has described the atavistic quality of his work as such, ''"He seems able to lay this place bare, restore it to its original form, its ancientness, its soul. Mountain ranges often seem prehistoric, or like dinosaur relics."'' When Liddle talks about his work, he frequently asserts that experience of nature and particularly stone, is core to his practice. He has been quoted as saying, ''"My purpose in life seems to have been to record adventures."'' He has exhibited nationally, including at the Royal Academy, and internationally. His work is held in public collections including both the

Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council is the county council for the English non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county is divided into 52 electoral divisions, which return a to ...

Art Collection and the Otter Gallery,

University of Chichester , mottoeng = By teaching, we learn , type = public university, Public , established = 2005 , administrative_staff = 600 , vice_chancellor = Jane Longmore , city = Chichester, West Sussex , country ...

. He has regularly appeared in the ''Cumbria Life'' publication and has also featured on several regional and national television programmes.

References

External links

Cornish Artist Index

Artist's Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liddle, Peter 1940 births Living people Alumni of Nottingham Trent University British mixed media artists British landscape painters 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters People from the Borough of Darlington 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists