An Exhibition of Paintings by Peter Stiles

About us

This Summer, discover a wonderful range of paintings by Peter Stiles in our Cells. The exhibition features an eclectic mix of images, from Plymouth Lido sparkling in the sunshine and charity shop windows, to kitchens, hallways, waterfalls and rock pools.

Stiles creates paintings which commemorate lost events and feelings by transforming them into something else – akin to planting a tree among the ashes of someone you love.

The paintings of his sink and washing machine were made after the death of a close friend who came back in order to clean his house from top to bottom whilst he slept (sadly only a dream), another commemorates a half brother he didn't know existed, but who only made contact six months before he died of a brain tumor. Other paintings simply depict the transience of a summer's day, a day that recedes further into the distance with every second that passes.

This year he began to wear glasses which allowed him to see detail again, from the wrinkles on his face to the insects on the houseplants. And his renewed enjoyment of simply looking at things has suggested new subject matter for his paintings.

The guiding principle in putting together a picture is always an emotion. It is emotion that unifies all the separate elements of the painting and which guides the selection of the different items that are displayed in the paintings of a charity shop window, It's the same process by which the colours and shapes that make up an abstract painting are chosen.

The more abstract paintings start off from paintings of particular places; he painted seaweed floating above the pebbles of a rock-pool until all that remained was the movement of shapes in the water – translated into colour and shape.

Peter Stiles shows his work in London and across the South-West. Recent one-man shows include Plymouth Arts Centre, The British Academy, London and The Black Swan in Frome.