Peter McDermott
Gallery and bio below
Gallery
BIO
Peter entered the West Surrey College of Art & Design at the age of 15, becoming the college’s youngest student. After 5 years formal training, and following a period of 18 years spent in London where he rose to the position of Creative Director within a highly respected agency, Peter felt led to change direction, return to the country of his father, and pursue his first love, watercolours.
Now based on the Isle of Skye with his family, Peter has been painting professionally for just over 20 years. Recognised as one of Scotland's leading exponents of watercolour, Peter's work is represented in private collections around the world.
Artists thoughts:
Watercolour fascinates me...
It’s the combination of discipline and freedom. Discipline, to wait
patiently while washes are drying, not being tempted to ‘adjust’
during the drying process, and freedom, because every mark the brush
makes means something. Therefore a brush stroke can suddenly become a
tree, shadows, rocks, conscious all the time that a wrong move or lack
of patience will ruin what has been already been created.
And landscape...
As a child, landscape represented a connection to one’s roots, whether
it was a painting by my Czech Uncle Ládia of the Krakenos mountains, or
a photo of our Scottish Aunties on the shores of Loch Lomond. Landscape
evoked emotions of belonging and family. Later, the landscape became a
demonstration of God’s magnificent presence in creation, especially with
the ever-changing light and dramatic weather patterns found particularly
in the Western Isles. Because of this, my work is unashamedly
representational, enabling everyone to recognise and react emotionally
to the location and elements portrayed.
I draw my inspiration from James Fletcher-Watson, one of Britain’s
finest landscape watercolourists, Edward Wesson for his economy of brush
strokes and John Singer Sargent for his incredible ability to take the
very ordinary and turn it into something beautiful.