A year has passed since my exhibition IDEAS – IMAGES -OBJECTS at the Atkins Gallery in Hinckley.

The show attracted a good number of visitors over two weeks, and it was a pleasure for me to share what I have been doing in the studio with friends, colleagues and family as well as some who were previously unfamiliar with my work. There were some interesting observations and comments, mostly complimentary, including one ‘terrifying’ which still has me thinking.

I must give thanks to Stuart Ball and Dave and Sadie Green who gave valuable support and help with the design and content of the exhibition and Rebecca and Karen of the Atkins Gallery who were always on hand to advise and assist with the setting up of the show.

I also received very welcome assistance from colleagues Rachel and Geoff of the Fusion Gallery in the dismantling and packing up the show ready to return to the studio.

Since May ’26 I have been somewhat handicapped with some minor health problems so haven’t been in the studio as much as I would like (also the weather doesn’t help!) but I have been quite involved with the project ‘Artist Windows’ which has enabled a group of local artists to present their work to the public of Hinckley in the premises of an empty shop.

I was fortunate to have visited London recently to see the exhibitions of Tracy Emin and Rose Wylie at the Tate Modern and Royal Academy. I found the latter particularly enjoyable and stimulating and even more since there were fewer visitors than the Tate which was extremely busy. Emin’s work is always thought provoking and confrontational, isn’t it?

A week in Madeira in May was a treat and a joy and a reminder that colour and awesome scenery is not far away, quite inspiring and refreshing!

Peter June 2026

At the present time I am nearing the completion of preparing for my forthcoming solo exhibition at the Atkins Gallery in Hinckley Leicestershire. The exhibition opens on Friday 9^th May and runs until Friday 23^rd. The gallery is in the building of a former hosiery factory which has been adapted to provide a bright and airy exhibition space, a café and areas for other communal activities.

I am calling this show Ideas – Images – Objects, A Retrospective.

This is intended to indicate the experimental and conceptual nature of my approach in which I use a variety of media and forms which include work on canvas, sculptures, prints, drawings and found objects. The pieces on show here are selected from what has been made over the previous 20 years since I first came to live in the East Midlands. Some will be from private collections and some from my home and studio and the intention is to share with friends, colleagues and others what has interested and occupied me creatively over the past two decades.

Since around 2005 when I came here from Newlyn, I have continued with my yoga practice and have made regular journeys to Tenerife and Portugal and occasionally to Egypt and Spain always taking both a sketchbook and a yoga mat.

Walking has been a pleasure during this time. I joined the Ramblers and HF holidays quite early on when coming here and this has taken me to various parts of this county and to a variety of types of landscape across the country.

The opportunities to see and experience such different visual environments has given impetus for much of the work which later emerges in the studio in contemplation and recollection.

PB 4 May 2025

Having had a few health problems over the previous two years my studio practice has not been straightforward and there have been too many interruptions to the flow. Despite this I have managed to produce a small but consistent body of work in pursuit of my primary interest in abstract, colour field paintings using a limited palette of acrylic earth colours, mainly umber and sienna with admixtures of primary hues and black and white. The format is invariably a ready- made square cotton duck canvas usually 1 metre or 70cm. I am still using roller, brush, sponge etc. allowing accidental effects to occur as the paint is applied.

When I am in the process of making images, I am mindful of certain types of classical music (mostly Baroque) and modern jazz, I also have a feeling or correspondence with my other activities which are walking and yoga.

I am pleased to be able to say that my health at present is allowing me to participate in all these activities with enthusiasm and vigour and I am looking forward to continuing to have a regular studio practice and to exhibiting work in the coming year.

I welcome enquiries and would be pleased to see visitors who may be interested in coming to the studio to chat and see my work.

Peter Berry

8^th January ‘23

Well, we are in lockdown again but, as someone recently said to me, it seems to be good for ‘creatives’ like us (actually I have just remembered it was in a conversation with a local artist and friend Ruth Medhurst who I met briefly on a walk yesterday in Hinckley).

It has been a glorious summer and I have been fortunate to have enjoyed many and frequent local walks in the urban and rural landscapes in this part of Leicestershire. This week I walked in Bradgate Park where I had previously run a drawing project called ‘Walking and Drawing: Dejeuner sur l’herbe’ (we all brought a packed lunch to share!). This project produced some very lively and explorative drawings but was thought by some, as I recall, to have far more walking than drawing for their taste!

Art wise I have enjoyed visiting two exhibitions in Birmingham, one at a small gallery in Great Tindall Street, T Street Gallery, set up and managed by a very resourceful and enterprising young gallerist Sevven Kucuk. This show was a series of small oil paintings by Carolyn Blake who is enjoying deserved success with this delightful and thought-provoking show and having had a painting accepted and showing in the current RA Summer Show. The second exhibition was at the Ikon Gallery by the artist Kristof Kintera follow the link to view the show online (an exciting and innovative artist in my opinion).

Over recent weeks I have been fortunate to have established a daily routine of yoga, walking and studio practice. All of which I find mutually beneficial to a feeling of wellbeing and contentment.

Looking  back at my own practice I have begun to wonder why I called time on the ‘Haiku’ series (which became interrupted by the lockdown but the seeds of doubt had already been sown by a rejection of these by the panel for the previous RA Summer Show). I now intend to revisit the aims I had in mind when approaching the series, those of a more ‘expressionist’ handling of paint and of a more random placing of ‘areas of action’ and  a wider use of implements for mark making.

This website, thanks to Dave Green, now has a link to my Instagram account and has allowed for a more spontaneous and current use of the found image which I record when out on my walks. May I wish you all well in your own creative practices.

Pete 16 November ‘20

Looking back on a glorious summer and remembering highlights such as the re-gathering of work of some old colleagues and fellow exhibitors at the ‘Ikon Artists of the Sixties’ show at the Medicine Bakery Gallery in July at the old RBSA premises on New Street, Birmingham. Good to meet again and catch up with Dinah Prentice and Jess Bruton, both co- founders of the Ikon Gallery in the early sixties.

My sculpture, the yellow and white, 4ft. ‘ Squares’ of 1967 (re-constructed in 2004), seen against the dynamic grid paintings of David Prentice, looked fresh and strong and I was most pleased to be showing in such  impressive company in an historic gallery space in the centre of town. The evening was very well attended and thoroughly enjoyed.

During this last few months I have enjoyed collaborating with Jacqui Gallon who continues to work tirelessly and enthusiastically at her own practice and in the initiation and running of projects and workshops. Notable amongst these was the ‘Down to Earth’ project held in the church hall of St Mary’s in Nanpantan, near Loughborough, in which I was pleased to be a participant. An exhibition of this group work is to be held at the church hall this week, 22/23 and 24th November, which includes some of my pieces developed later with the Giclee print process which is quite new to me.

In my studio I have been working on a number of studies for painting using drawings made by using a range of wooden implements (sticks, twigs etc.) and Indian ink which have been based on my experience of visiting a nature or wildlife reserve near Coventry called Brandon Marsh. These studies continue to be involved with my ongoing interest  in natural elements  expressed through gesture and accidental effect. This way of working was first investigated in the ‘Haiku’ series a year or two before and shown at the Lightbox Gallery in Leicester.

In early November I was able to see the Anni Albers show at the Tate Modern and to pay homage, again, to the large late Rothko’s and to see, once more,  the iconic large Monet painting of water lillies.

20 November ’18