PEACE, John (1933-2017)

Landscape, portrait and still life painter in oil and watercolour: art teacher. Peace was born at Lemington, near Newcastle, and after education at his local primary school, and later St Cuthbert’s Grammar School, Newcastle, attended the School of Art at South Shields. After leaving the School he studied at the College of Art, Leeds, where he won entrance to the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and completed his artistic education. Following his national service in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, mainly in Cyprus, he returned to Lemington, and began a career in teaching art with a position at the John Marley School, Westerhope, near Newcastle. He later took a similar position at Sunderland Polytechnic (now Sunderland University), remaining there until his retirement, as senior lecturer in painting.

Peace had painted and exhibited his work throughout his artistic education and his later career in teaching, and on his retirement decided to become a full-time professional painter. He had first exhibited his work in his twenties, showing examples at the Royal Academy; the Royal Drawing Society; the Society of West Riding Artists, the Arts Council, and the Stone Gallery, Newcastle. In 1959 he shared an exhibition at the Stone Gallery, Newcastle, with Frank Avray Wilson (b.1914), and in 1961 with John Minton (1917-1957). This gallery also gave him his first one-man exhibition in 1962, since when he has continued to show his work extensively in Northumbria in one-man, joint and group exhibitions, including among the latter the seasonal exhibitions at the Dean Gallery, Newcastle.

His main preoccupation throughout his work has been landscapes and coastal views, characterised by simplified compositions and subtle colours. Many of these have been painted in Northumbria, but he has also painted extensively in Europe. He has additionally painted a variety of other subjects, including portraits and still lifes, and has had his work reproduced as limited edition prints. He lives and works at Lemington. Represented: Sunderland AG. and various public and private collections.

Text copyright Marshall Hall “The Artists of Northumbria”