Peter Rush: New Ground

About

A professional career involving a wide range of creative disciplines saw Peter Rush create illustrations for children's books in the USA, draw for televised animation at the BBC's 'Jackanory', invent an original technique for animating paper sculpture, perform puppet shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and write and illustrate his own children's book, alongside the teaching of art at Bryanston School and many workshops for diverse age groups and abilities. On 'New Ground', the artist has returned to his home ground: oil painting. Setting his sights on an area in Dorset, Portland and the Sandbanks, which harbours exceptional geographical and weather conditions, Peter Rush charts the weather with characteristic speed, fluidity and drama. Central to his recent oeuvre is the culmination of drawing skills honed over many years of practice with land -, sea - and sky scapes which provoke a direct impact in the viewer. Resembling 'Turneresque' whirlwinds in their unsettling, almost alarming quality, these works convey the essence of true art and creativity feeding an imagination which transcends everyday reality. Unmediated by specialist academic knowledge and defying the boundaries of the cerebral, the works communicate the excitement of the fleeting moment with a rare visual immediacy. Rush's work demystifies the transformative process of art and the experience it offers to us all.