Press Release August 2022

 

Contact: Anja Myrsep

Email anjamyrsep@btinternet.com

 

British painter and architect Peter Brimelow swaps his studio in London for the open air of the Lower Engadine for three months.

"Under the open sky in the Lower Engadine".

25 paintings by Peter Brimelow

Grotta da Cultura, 7554 Sent, Switzerland

01 October 2022 - 07 January 2023

 

The paintings are shown on the gallery pages of this website. 

High resolution images available on request.

 

The British painter Peter Brimelow is exhibiting 25 paintings, inspired by the mountain landscape of the Lower Engadine. The works were created ‘en plein air’ in the autumn and winter of 2021 and 2022 in the different weather conditions of the changing seasons.

The paintings will be on display at the Grotta da Cultura in Sent from 1 October 2022 to 7 January 2023. 

 

Artist Statement 

My first encounter with the Engadine valley in Switzerland was fifteen years ago with my wife, who grew up in the valley. Since then, we have been drawn from urban London to the Lower Engadine. The coronavirus pandemic meant that we were unable to travel for a long time. As soon as it was possible again, we decided to spend three months in the picturesque village of Sent in the autumn and the winter of 2021/22.

 

I used this time to explore a new genre of painting. My studio works are usually complex, multi-layered paintings that I paint over days and weeks, focusing on a precise rendering of urban architecture and exploring the fleetingness of movement in the urban landscape. These new paintings of the Lower Engadine were each created within a few hours and in a single painting session, in the open air, fully experiencing the landscape. 

 

In the late summer and early autumn of 2021, I enjoyed the trees changing colour and the mild weather of sunny September afternoons. Then, as autumn gave way to winter, snow and cold brought new challenges. I had to warm my acrylic paints overnight to prevent them from freezing when I painted outdoors. Despite my careful preparations including wearing several layers of clothing, working with gloves and weighing down the easel with stones to be able to paint even in strong winds, ice crystals that formed on the brushes and on the painting surface limited the duration of my painting sessions. 

 

The resulting paintings are an immediate response to the mountain landscape at that moment in contrast to the carefully prepared and detailed cognitive analysis which is the basis of my cityscapes.  

Although different processes are involved in the creation of the paintings, I see a parallel between the landscape paintings and the city paintings. The Engadine series explores the natural changes and transcience of the seasons and the weather in the context of the permanence of the mountains.           The London Paintings explore the man made transcience of movement in the city in the context of the permanence of the architecture.

 

The village of Sent is at the heart of this series. Apart from the two paintings of the lakes near Tarasp, all of the paintings are views looking out from the village towards the mountains, or views from the mountains looking back towards the village.  

 

Biographical 

Peter Brimelow BA (Hons) BArch (Hons) RIBA

 

Peter Brimelow graduated in architecture in 1985 and went on to work in different fields, including set designer for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), exhibition designer for The British Museum, retail interior designer and architectural illustrator. He later returned to architecture and founded the award-winning architectural practice "Brimelow McSweeney Architects" based in London's Covent Garden. 

Peter Brimelow retired from architecture a few years ago to concentrate on painting. He works with various galleries in London, which exhibit and sell his works to an international clientele.