Peter Hay (1951?2003) was a
visionary artist. He was a very English painter whose work has a
poetic and mystical quality. Eclectic, curious magpie, he found
inspiration from everywhere and gathered it into his image-making. He was a fine draughtsman
and watercolourist, a brilliantly inventive printmaker. At heart a figurative
artist, the work moves into abstraction through striking black
and white and a rich use of colour.
After studying Fine Art at
Reading University, and two years away in Cornwall, Peter Hay
settled in Reading for the rest of his life. He had a strong sense of place;
the junction of the rivers Thames and Kennet close to his home was a frequent
symbolic theme in his work. He became a central figure in the local art community and was an inspirational teacher. In 1994 he founded Two Rivers Press which gave
him the opportunity to pursue through illustration his passion for campaigning, his love of poetry and history.
This book brings together the range of this prolific artist?s work for the first time.