1971 - Colne Revisited: Alwin Gallery

Peter painted a series of reflective paintings of his hometown of Colne, which were described by him as a ‘controlled accident’, and they went on to form his first exhibition in this decade, at the Alwin Gallery in 1971.

An accident, as it was not a place to which had he longed to return, however a teaching job in 1969 took him back to the town of his childhood. There, he found a different appreciation for the town, perhaps seeing it through fresh eyes than those he had viewed it through when leaving at age 17. Peter had a love - hate relationship with his birthplace saying at the time “Colne depressed me as a child and still does.”

The paintings were born from a collection of postcards of Colne, from the past, mainly  Edwardian era, which had been collected and catalogued by Mr Wilf Spencer, the librarian at the local College of Further Education. The sepia tinge of the old photographs were transformed into subtle creams, beiges, browns and greys on Peter’s canvases. Some scenes were rather muted, whilst others depicted a carnival atmosphere, perhaps reflective of his own contradictory emotions about the town in which he had grown up. It is interesting to notice on Peter’s impressionistic paintings of Colne, how he has incorporated postmarks and fragments of handwriting from the original postcard collection, representing the history and indeed the lives which he was bringing to life some six decades later.

Another departure from his previous works is how Peter has used oval framing which was brought to popularity in the 18th century, to bring greater focus to his subjects.