Henry Peter's one-man exhibition of acrylic paintings on canvas opens on this Monday April 1, with a reception 6:30-9 p.m. The show will feature Peter's new collection of paintings of architecture, landscapes and marine scenes of Key West, the Florida Keys and the American West.
Peter was born in Burglengenfeld, Germany in 1949. He now makes his home in Florida, and has been painting up a storm this past year. He credits his love of nature and its sensitive expression in his landscapes to a happy childhood spent growing up amidst the rolling hills and dark forest of southern Bavaria.
"There is sense of amazement and wonder that pervades my life and shapes my response to the world," he said. "Often just a single aspect of a scene will hold my interest long enough to produce a painting. It might be the play of sunlight through foliage or the delicate hint of color in the early morning mist. The whorls shaping a piece of driftwood or a sand dune. The textures and patterns in grassy fields or breaking surf or the incredible variety of light and clouds and sky. It often seems as though I'm experiencing these things for the first time. I have to stop and look. I have to paint to help me understand and remember."
Peter has been painting since the age of 12, while living with his parents in Englewood, New Jersey. He is primarily self-taught, having let his artistic instincts develop and shape a style that is highly realistic yet readily identifiable and personal.
While working primarily in oils and acrylics, he has created award-winning pen and ink pieces as well as a variety of mixed media works.
He has exhibited and won numerous awards in regional and national shows in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Montana. He was recently a "Top 100" winner in the National "Arts for the Parks" competition in Jackson, Wyoming, and his work was included in that year's nationwide traveling exhibit.
Gingerbread Square Gallery is located "uptown" at 1207 Duval St. The show continues through April 7. Info: 296-8900.