Spotlight On: Peter Lumley

Peter’s work centres on feelings of alienation from mainstream art and reality, and focuses on nostalgia. After studying Fine Art at Nottingham Art College, Peter completed a postgraduate research project on “Visual Imagery of Congenitally Blind Children”. This project continues to inform his work, which is also inspired by the work of Salvador Dali and the outsider art of Dubuffet, which redefines the realms of the traditional art canon. He describes his work as:

An image, a vague feeling of nostalgia, unplaced and untouched, an old discarded comic book, a heart carved on a tree in some lonely wood, a child’s first drawing fading on a fridge, a message born out of frustration scrawled on a wall, a plastic jewel in a plastic crown, masked faces peering through cracked and dirty windows, fireworks at midnight, a dolls head covered in lipstick lying in the gutter, charred and peeling wallpaper in an old deserted house… no style, no grace, no intellectual explanations… just a vague feeling of nostalgia, unplaced and untouched, and death dancing alone through empty streets.

Current studio artist exhibition

Throughout his career, Peter’s style has had several transformations, exploring various mediums and styles in response to his events in his personal life. From photographic film to digital art as well as his current use of mixed media collage, his art work remains narrative. By defining his work through the opposition of mainstream art, he tells alternative stories and illustrates the experiences of those who don’t have a voice.

Currently, Peter is reworking past paintings, covering them with pictures from magazine, which he works away at the reveal glimpses of hidden layers underneath, like a peeling weathered billboard. Poetry regularly accompanies his work, providing a vague narrative for the picture in which the viewer can interpret the pieces.

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Death:

"I have now transformed into a sensitive; a person who is able to detect when spirits are present. It’s a skill that’s evolved over hundreds of paranormal investigations and has taught me that the human body is the best means of paranormal detection. I’ve become a fine-tuned instrument of spiritual sensitivity.” 

Find Peter on Facebook: PeterLumley.art

Words by Megan Davies.