Born in the small town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire Peter Smith bypassed the well trodden route to the local industries and followed the somewhat unusual lifestyle of artist. Along the way he became a surveyor, a computer programmer and eventually a graphic artist within the fashion industry, a job he enjoyed for 16 happy years. His last two years have been spent increasing his presence within the art world and honing his skills to the standard you now see before you.

“People ask me where I get my ideas from, the quirky animals, the strong colours and strange concepts, but I see them everyday in the street, the people I meet, the feelings I experience. At the end of every day I have hundreds of images fighting for my attention and the chance to be painted; quite often I get carried away with excitement and fill my sketchbook with images from cover to cover within hours.

“My colours come from my work within the fashion industry to provide strong visual statements, my compositions come from interaction; I like to include some form of connection between the items on a canvas, and quite often the eyes will play a big part in leading a viewer's perception, imagine yourself looking from the viewpoint of one of the characters, look around from their point of view inside the canvas observing all the other objects and try to imagine their feelings - you will then begin to understand what I really felt when I painted the piece.”

Here is a painting by Peter Smith for an example. [link]