Shoreham exhibition honours the late Jon Peaty

The exhibition is being organised by David Peaty, the artist's son.

As David recalls: “His work included brand advertising, newspaper and magazine illustration, murals and cartoons. However, his first love was painting and this eventually became his main source of income. He held many one-man shows mainly in the UK but also in America and undertook portrait commissions on a regular basis. His own estimate was that he had painted some 3,000 or more works.

“ Painting is the field of work for which he would most want to remembered and so among the works exhibited there will be 30 paintings.

“Returning from war to Southwick, Jon also wanted to make a community contribution and he quickly got involved with the Southwick Community Centre and Southwick Players. His art skills were volunteered for a range of activities including centre advertising and events and sets and decor for the Southwick Players. He also founded the Southwick Art Club which continues to this day.

“Jon was known as a character on the local scene. He had a great sense of fun and was a lover of landscape and nature. These qualities permeate the work on show.

“This exhibition will be the first showing of Jon’s work since his death. It illustrates his range of talents and will be of historic and artistic interest. Members of the family will be at the gallery most days. If you have memories of Jon or maybe if you have one of his paintings, do come along, say hello and have a chat.”

The exhibition Jon Peaty – artist 1914-1991: A Retrospective Exhibition opens at the Skyways Gallery at the Shoreham Centre, Pond Road on September 10 and runs until the September 30 (not Sundays).

David added: “My father was a vital, sociable, exuberant man. I remember a lot of laughter in our family home and daily life was frequently dramatised through comic story telling.

“He entertained through his cartoons and commercial work, but not only publicly. To mark special personal or family events we were always presented with a personal cartoon or drawing. These visual notes reflected back to me how he currently saw me. It made me feel valued. I also have an abiding memory of quieter moments – of journeys with him through the landscape. Here his enthusiasms were expressed by drawing attention to some aspect of nature he had seen afresh and wanted me to see: the gorgeous sheen on a chicken’s breast, the patterns of the fields, myriad greens beyond a burnt-sienna soil. There were moments when, say, the beauty of the configuration of the light in the clouds struck him with intensity. Within seconds he would be steadying and adjusting the camera, focus ing it and his attention, then capturing the designs and colours for later transformation into paint.

“As I have put this exhibition together I have come to see what a generous spirit he was and how aspects of his character permeate the work. He tried to show the beauty in nature and the everyday world through his painting. When he was weeks from death I was sitting with him at home one day and a sudden burst of sunlight lit up a terracotta pot on the hearth. His eyes filled with tears and, with a quiet voice in rapture, he drew my attention to the beauty of this immediate present moment.

“I hope that visitors to this exhibition will be entertained and uplifted as I have been in putting it together.”