Peter Barker was born in 1954 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, the son of a well known musical family on both his mother’s and father’s side. A golf professional for nearly twelve years from 1972, he embarked on a new career as a painter in late 1983. Although self-taught, he received much early encouragement from renowned landscape artist Caesar Smith.

Peter’s passion for the British countryside is reflected in his work which conveys an acute sense of observation and knowledge. Often he returns to the same wood, stretch of river or coastline, portraying it in different weather, season and time of day. In 1994 Anglia Television made a short film which featured many of his paintings and showed him sketching by the River Welland and painting in the studio.

He has not settled into any one niche of painting; rather, he finds painting such a wide variety of subjects, from landscape, marine, wildlife, still-life and portraits, both on a large scale and small, in oil, pastel, acrylic or watercolour, keeps his work fresh and his desire to paint unceasing, limited only by the number of hours in a day. He paints both in the field ‘en plein air’ and in the studio at home in Rutland. Limited edition prints of Peter’s work are available.

With numerous highly acclaimed solo exhibitions behind him, his paintings are in collections all over the world and are thus in ever-increasing demand. Work has also been accepted by the Pastel Society (where he won the Frank Herring award in 2006), The Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (where he won the Stanley Grimm Memorial Award for the public’s favourite painting and the Ranelagh Press award in 2009) at the Mall Galleries in London.

Exhibitions:
Deben Gallery, Suffolk, 1986 & 87 (with Caesar Smith)
Stamford Artists Gallery, Lincolnshire, 1990, 92, 94, 96, 98, 00
Ringstead Gallery, Norfolk 1989, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 2001, 03, 05, 06, 08
Spencer Coleman Fine Art, Beverley, 1998, 04 (with Crin Gale), 05
Spencer Coleman Fine Art, Lincoln, 2000, 02, 04, 07
Spencer Coleman Fine Art, London, 2006
Marine House at Beer, Devon 2008 (with Mary Pym), 2009 (with Tina Morgan), 2012
Pastel Society, 2006, 09
Royal Society of Marine Artists, 2006, 07, 08, 09, 10
Royal Institute of Oil Painters, 2008, 09, 10
Iona House Gallery, 2010
John Noott Gallery, 2010
York Fine Arts, 2012
The Colomb Art Gallery, London Winter Exhibition 2010/11

Awards:
1969 1st Ford Under-18 National Painting Competition
2003 Top-Ten Finalist, International Artist
2006 Public’s Favourite Painting, Leicestershire Pastel Society (LPS)
2006 Frank Herring Award, The Pastel Society
2007 Public’s Favourite Painting, LPS
2007 Gadsby Prize, LPS
2008 Society Award, LPS
2009 Gadsby Prize, LPS
2009 Stanley Grimm Memorial Award and the Ranelagh Press Award, Royal Institute of Oil Painters

Peter was recently interviewed on ‘The Radio 2 Arts Programme.’ with Claudia Winkleman.