Print exhibition

Peter S Smith has an exhibition of prints at the Bridewell Theatre Bar Gallery which includes prints by students from the wood engraving print workshop that Peter teaches at St Bride.
Peter exhibits his paintings and prints in the UK and overseas with work in public and private collections, including Tate Britain and the Ashmolean Oxford, as well as teaching workshops in the visual arts. He is a Member of the Society of Wood Engravers and an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers.

In September 2006, Piquant Editions published a book about his printmaking called “The way I see it….” with an introductory essay by Calvin Seerveld.

Last year Peter was commissioned by St John's Leytonstone for a print to celebrate the completed restoration of the church. This print now features on the Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area and Peter held a small exhibition of prints and gave an art talk at the church as part of the Barking Episcopal Area Art Festival.

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Jim White - Chase The Dark Away.

Restoration engraving in Bankside exhibition

An engraving by Peter S. Smith which was commissioned for St John's Leytonstone to celebrate the completion of major restoration works to the church can be seen in the forthcoming Society of Wood Engravers exhibition at the Bankside Gallery from 27th January to 9th February.

The Society of Wood Engravers exists to promote wood engraving. It is the principal organisation and rallying point for those interested in the subject; it also maintains a lively interest in other forms of relief printmaking. Essentially, it is an artists' exhibiting society. There are around seventy members, practising artists who have been elected or invited to membership on merit.

Simon Brett has written that Peter S. Smith was:

"among a group of like-minded young artists who sat at the feet of the Dutch Calvinist art historian Hans Rookmaaker. Rookmaaker (1922-77), himself part of Francis Schaeffer's evangelical L'Abri movement, brought a deep understanding of contemporary art to bear on what a Christian might do in what then seemed like cultural end-times."

Brett writes that Smith "has always been one of the few artists to use wood engraving for a truly personal and genuinely contemporary vision, untrammelled by even the best conventions of the medium."

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Iona - Let Your Glory Fall.

Art talks at Art Festivals

On Monday I heard a fascinating talk by Peter S. Smith on the history and techniques of engraving. Peter is a painter/printmaker working out of a studio in Clink Street on the Southbank in London who exhibits his paintings and prints in the UK and overseas with work in public and private collections as well as teaching workshops in the visual arts. In September 2006, Piquant Editions published a book about his printmaking called “The way I see it….” with an introductory essay by Calvin Seerveld.

An exhibition of his work, including a newly commissioned print to celebrate the completion of a new church roof, can be seen until 24th July at St John's Leytonstone, where his talk was also given, as part of the Leytonstone Festival and Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival.
Last night two further talks on the arts were also given at Holy Trinity and St Augustine of Hippo Leytonstone as part of the same festivals. Mark Lewis from commission4mission introduced the Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area while Dr Graham Gould gave a engaging presentation looking at the commissioning and content of the concrete lintel designed by sculptor Stephen Sykes for the church. Sykes' principal theme was Scenes from the life of St Augustine, although the central panel of the relief is of the Trinity. As well as providing information about Sykes and this commission, Graham took us through the various scenes from the life of St Augustine which Sykes chose to depict before saying that he was unsure about the significance of the final scene. commission4mission member Valerie Dean was able to provide an answer. Having seen other versions of the same scene in Italy, she explained that it related to a legend about Augustine and Jesus in which Christ said that explaining the nature of the Trinity was like trying to empty the ocean with a shell.

Information about the remaining events in the Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival can be found by clicking here.

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Joan Baez - I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine.