Artist of the Month: Carol Peace

This month’s artist is Carol Peace, whose limited edition prints of an original painting are exclusively available through our online shop.

Bredwardine Blue: 170 x 230mm, £157 framed | £120 unframed

Carol Peace is one of Bristol’s best-known artists. Her connection to the city goes back 25 years. “In 1992, I had two commissions from my degree show and moved directly from Winchester to the Bristol Sculpture Shed. A few sculptors from Winchester were at the ‘shed’ so it was the studio that first brought me here,” she explains.

“We all then moved into Spike Island, and then I have been at Paintworks since it started over 10 years ago. Over the years I have had temporary studios in London and Barcelona, but Bristol has always been home. It is here that I have grown up as a sculptor.

“It seems ridiculous to like a city because ‘it’s the right size’ but as well as being geographically easy to navigate by cycle, Bristol has got everything. It’s difficult to create in a vacuum: you need good quality inspiration and Bristol has that.

“There’s always plenty to see, do, hear and of course taste – it sounds horribly hipster but I love the fact that I can go to a poetry evening, get a locally brewed pint and buy a loaf of bread all at the same time.”

Carol’s sculpture Eve, which will be auctioned off as part of the Bristol24/7 Autumn Feast

Carol is predominantly a sculptor, working with clay. “I see the sculpture as drawing – it just happens to be in 3D,” she says. “When I work, the lines come and go, and the form shifts until it rearranges itself into someone that I can connect with. It’s usually very textured with planes of light defining the form. I don’t work from my drawings directly, but at the same time, I couldn’t make sculpture without doing a lot of drawing.”

More recently, Carol has started to split her time between her studio at Paintworks and a cottage in the Brecon Beacons. “This contrast has started to exert an influence on my work so that over the past year, I have been drawing in a completely different way.

“This new work feels like an open door. Some of the figures are strong with vibrant colours and defined edges, in some the background air seeps in and only a pencil line defines the volume, as if in a moment it will lift off like a leaf and blow away.

“The featured work I have for sale is a limited-edition print of one of these new life paintings, Bredwardine Blue, the colour taken from the river Wye that drifts along the valley next our place in the hills.”

Artist Carol Peace

2017 is an important year for Carol: not only is it ten years since she and Graham Woodruff founded the Bristol Drawing School, which continues to thrive in the RWA, but it’s also her 25th year as an artist. She’s celebrating in a big way, with an 11-day extravaganza of sculpture, drawing, painting, words, food and music from November 10-19.

The Bristol24/7 Autumn Feast (Nov 16) will take place in the midst of Carol’s exhibition in Paintworks Event Space with her sculpture, Eve, auctioned on the night to raise additional funds for Bristol24/7’s social impact agenda.

The partnership with Bristol24/7 and Square Food Foundation has come from personal experiences Carol had as a young woman. “I had a bit of a tricky spell as a teenager and ended up homeless,” she says. “Having ‘no fixed abode’ you suddenly find yourself on a very slippery slope, but I was lucky enough to have been taught to cook.”

Some of the young chefs who will cook at the Bristol24/7 Autumn Feast

“Having nowhere to go in the evenings and no money, I used to sit in the pub drinking water, and eventually the landlord said I could use the kitchen upstairs,” Carol continues. “It was a bit of a rough pub so he was happy to let me have a go and try and ‘improve the clientele’.

“I set up my own business doing lunches (it was too hectic in the evenings). It was a slow start: someone would order something at the bar like a sandwich and I would take the money for the order and run out of the back of the pub to the shop and buy the stuff to make it. It escalated from there until I had enough money to make proper food and Sunday lunches.

“So, you could say that food saved my life!” Carol says. “The experience helped me realise that not everyone can change the road they are on without a lucky break and a supportive helping hand.”

Profits from the sale of Carol’s work, both as Artist of the Month, and at the sculpture auction as part of the Bristol24/7 Autumn Feast, will go towards the Bristol24/7 social impact agenda. Keep up to date with her latest work at www.carolpeace.com.