Colin Bishop and Peter Hayes

About

The unique visions of Peter Hayes and Colin Bishop share one theme - the effect of nature and the elements. Bishop captures the transforming effects of time and weather on his native Dorset while Hayes’ sculpture is subjected to the hazards of ‘raku’ firing, and submerged for months in flowing rivers and the sea.

PETER HAYES is recognised as one of the leading exponents in the field of sculptural ceramics.   His arresting objects can be seen across the globe from UK institutions such as the Jerwood Foundation and Scottish National Gallery to far-flung locations in Udaipur, Hawaii and Jamaica. His utterly unique approach and technical brilliance using age-old techniques have led to his popularity for monumental private and public commissions around the world. Hayes’s inspiration is rooted in his travels with 10 years in Africa, followed by time spent in Japan, Korea and Western Europe. Throughout his travels he has worked with indigenous craftsmen, learning from their age-old techniques and adapting them to suit his purposes. Not only is much of his work subjected to the hazards of ‘raku’ firing, involving huge shocks in temperature and thick smoke, but they are also submerged in a flowing river for months at a time. Erosion and change through time are recorded in one piece and the works evolve with their environment.

COLIN BISHOP is something of a maverick painter with a singular vision and a very unique language.  His paintings, with their thickly applied paint which is scraped back time and time again and re-applied in colourful swathes across the canvas, take on a sculpturesque appearance. They reveal themselves slowly, observing the transforming effects of time and weather on the countryside. Painting only in three specific locations in Dorset, an area so wonderfully evoked by Thomas Hardy in his novel “The Return of the Native” Bishop presents a tapestry of ancient tracks and tumuli, a palpable reminder of man’s occupation of this area of land over many thousands of years. The glorious result is imagery that appears woven in to the very fabric of the landscape.