Peter Soye

My work has been influenced by my enduring fascination with the history of art and of ideas. This has provided me with a wide range of influences, from the still, flat ‘magic realism’ of the Trecento Sienese masters to various 20th century artists (especially Max Beckmann), along with contemporary British painters such as Peter Howson and the late Steven Campbell. These and other influences have led me to develop a style of painting based around a shallow space emphasizing the surface of the painting with distortions of time and place, a focus on the human figure and extensive use of symbolism and allegory (using symbols ranging from classical painting to contemporary culture, including mathematical and scientific nomenclature). The work is completed mainly in oils, supplemented with acrylic and metal paints, and occasionally with printed text or images along with other objects subsumed into the paint surface.
In effect, each of my paintings reveals its own little universe (though one in which the normative rules of this world do not necessarily apply!), which sometimes reflects the absurdity of our own quotidian experiences.
I have had paintings accepted into a number of shows, including Open exhibitions at the Royal West Academy in Bristol, and my work can be seen at the ArtIsAr't gallery in Worcester. A more complete review of my work can be seen on my online archive at www.psoye.com.