About

A Short Biography

I retired from commercial life in 1991 and for a while struggled to find a way of occupying my greatly extended leisure time. I had always taken an interest in drawing and sketching but never had the time to take art seriously. Now I had all the time in the world, I was able to explore a wide range of options. Drawing skills took me naturally to pencils and pastels as media, and I went on a few courses for pastels and studied the many videos available at the local library, ….. some I found an excellent way to drop off to sleep. I took courses in Pastel pencils as these seemed to be a cleaner method for working pastels, and those courses took me logically to Coloured Wax Pencils as a method of getting the detail I was looking for. The next bit of excitement was my attendance at an AGM of the UK Coloured Pencil Society at Patchings in Nottingham. I was moved to make several comments from the floor about how I felt things might be organised, and - surprise - I found myself voted on to the committee. Let that be a lesson to you all. Take care when attending AGMs. I was Chairman of the UKCPS for 3 years and during that time made a lot of contacts in the art world and also demonstrated Coloured Pencils for the UKCPS at the NEC Birmingham and undertook show demonstrations for several of the European Pencil Manufacturers in the UK. I was asked to take over teaching residential Coloured Pencil courses at Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire when two of their teachers retired, and - 12 years later - I have also now retired from teaching there. Following the Covid shutdown, Knuston Hall has never re-opened. A great shame. I now paint in a wide range of media - mainly pastel and acrylic, though I also enjoy Pen & Wash. and in 2022 I worked more with Pastels again and also experimented with Acrylics painted in resin layers ( see the ‘news’ page). For 12 years I was Chairman of the Winslow & District Art Society in Buckinghamshire and I enjoy the social aspect of a local society and the chance to share knowledge with folk who are just starting out on their art progress. In 2019, I decided that it was time to pass on responsibility to others and following my retirement from teaching, I also retired from active service as an officer of the Society. The problems with the Virus lockdown in 2020 led to my running a regular website for the Winslow Society members for a time to keep things going. I can’t see me ever totally retiring, but at 85 I am certainly slowing down a bit and I paint less than I did - I try new challenges ( back to watercolour etc ) with varied success and also concentrate more on Pastels and the many new ideas that have been promoted since I first started with art nearly 30 years ago At least the challenges are keeping my brain active!

Peter Weatherill