Peter Sheppard

Peter Sheppard is a self-taught artist whose work continues to develop into his own signature of a type of stylised realism appearing typical of our environment, but is in fact drawn from the artist’s soul.

Sheppard chooses to paint in long overnight studio sessions. He explains:
“I believe this is the most productive time of day for me as it coincides with the creation and dawning of a new day – This is when I feel my most creative energy.”

Peter recently retired from the Travel Industry in which he has worked since leaving school at 17 years of age. He also designs and produces costumes for children and adults for Carnival. Over the past several years he has taken his costumes abroad and participated in Fantasy Fest in Key West, Florida where he has won the top prizes.

Peter’s 12th Solo Exhibition is scheduled for the fall of 2006 in Trinidad and will again be playing tribute to his indigenous natural landscapes. Not surprisingly, it is the good Sheppard who guides his flock through thickets, over waterways & onto lush green tropical pastures, to find beauty in the depths of pastoral life. But, how does Sheppard transport us to these idyllic places, which we recognize as being within the Caribbean, yet if we dare to look, they cannot be located? The foliage is distinctively Caribbean: Coconut palms, ferns, silk cotton trees and every aspect of flora and fauna that our region has to offer may be found in Sheppard’s art. Faithful to his subject matter, his paintings reflect a full colour palette.

Also presented in Sheppard’s work are his signature monochromatic studies -sometimes in shades of gray but mostly in rich sepia tones. Peter has departed somewhat from his familiar miniature format. In his last collection as well as his next collection, Peter brings us some larger canvases, with varied shapes and sizes. Sometimes he chooses a three dimensional effect with a convex canvas, to amplify intensity. Some of the paintings are oval in shape to reinforce his thematic concern for the ancient past, an unspoiled time. He says he chooses this oval shape because it is reminiscent of a locket that encapsulates the memory of an age before he was born, it tells the story of a time etched in our memories. It is the lost Eden that Peter Sheppard works assiduously to regain.

– By Sonia Gopeesingh-Luckhoo, Art Critic-

Country Road