Peter Kettle FRSA RCA was recently voted in as a Fellow for the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and member of the Royal Cambrian Academy (RCA). He has travelled extensively; taking on ambitious and physically challenging projects to explore his work.

Peter Kettle creates oil and mixed media paintings by immersing himself in landscape, and considers himself a Documentarian and Expressive Landscape Artist. Each year, Peter takes on planned journeys around his native Wales and remote regions of the world; and incorporates journalistic narratives and social geography into his projects. His previous expeditions have led him on a personal journey across the desert plains of Patagonia, and to the Andean Foothills, to retrace the steps of the Welsh Settlers.

Peter's following project embarked on a physically challenging environmental expedition, hiking to Everest Basecamp. In sub-zero temperatures, Peter collected rubbish along a 10-day hike to reuse in collage and mixed media works made ‘enpleinair’ at Everest. Where the story captivates him, he will record elements and nuances of the space to rework into ambitiously scaled and expressive paintings; using paint and other media poured, rubbed and splashed onto the canvas.

Having worked exclusively in oils, his technique has broadened to incorporate the use of plaster, collage, inks and shellac. His paintings give the impression of well-worn exterior walls, buffeted and corroded over time. The effect is a characterful, well weathered surface, stony and granular that is at the same time luminous with dramatic light. His paintings go through a number of stages, deconstructed and layered, to form a complex expression of his subject matter.

Peter started his career in Wales and now lives and works in Bristol, maintaining his travels to his native Wales; which remains a continual spur for his work.