Archive

Hockley artist Jeff Peters is ‘coming back’

August 4, 2016   ·   0 Comments

It can and does happen to many of us: a time in our lives when we stop producing creative work. Somehow, somewhere, we stop painting, writing, sculpting – it is called writers’ block with the ink stained wretches among us – not sure what everyone else calls it.

For Jeff Peters, Hockley painter and thinker, the line drawn his days of painting seems clear. Here is the story of how it happened.

To begin at the beginning, Jeff is the son of Gordon Peters, well-known watercolour painter, who died in June, 2014.

In an interview at his home, with his Northern English wife Ursula, Jeff Peters told us about his early days in his father’s studio: “When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I would take the subway to my father’s studio at Bloor and Yonge. I would get out of the subway and walk across a field [just imagine] at that northeast corner, to the house – it was a rickety, large old home which my dad shared with other artists. He was working, doing commercial work.”

By that age, Jeff was sketching under the guidance of his father: everything, lots of sketches – “people skiing,” he commented.

“I used to lean on my dad’s shoulder to watch him paint – ‘Don’t rock that table,’ he’d say, ‘that would make my painting move while I’m doing it.’

“To come to the meat of the matter, I realized the best mentor would be my father – someone to critique what I painted when I was 10 or 12 years old.

“I learned all the colours from my dad – that there was yellow ochre and aquamarine blue not just the simple colours and how to mix the colours to make others: use 20 different paints and you can make 1,000 different colours. You have to be consistent to use watercolour – you go from light to dark – oils are the opposite. All my training is from my dad.”

Mrs. Peters agreed. “Jeff’s dad was always encouraging him. He loved talking to his dad.”

Jeff and Ursula (Urs) Peters had a dream to go the Maritimes and travel as they pleased; they dreamt to spend several months there, towing a tent trailer and camping wherever struck their fancies. Their two children, Katrina and Todd, were grown and living their own lives. Jeff and Urs were living in a rented house on a farm- everything was conducive to their following their dream in the spring of 2010.

With the possibility in his mind, during the winter of 2009, Mr. Peters was, as his wife told us, “…pounding out paintings of tourist places out East that he took from researching photographs and images. When we went down, we had 60 or 70 paintings of  seascapes, lobster fishing villages and Cape Breton boats and some copies of them.”

“When we left, it was short notice,” Mrs. Peters explained. “It was raining and it rained for 16 hours. We were driving and it was Mothers’ Day. Todd called to wish me happy Mothers’ Day – ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘Just outside Quebec City,’ I told him – we’d left in such a hurry, we didn’t tell our kids!”

What followed were several weeks of a dream come true, for their time in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton was all and more than they could have expected.

Mrs. Peters related the first moment they realized what a great idea the trip had been: “We had made it to Cape Tormentine and we woke up at 5:00 in the morning – we were so excited to be there – made some coffee and watched the sun come up over the Confederation Bridge. By noon, there was a painting.”

They met wonderful people and made friends.

“Art is a door,” Mr. Peters said, “a way of meeting people, of being involved in other peoples’ lives.”

They met local people wherever they went by going to the local Legions where Mr. Peters was pleased to offer his paintings as gifts to charitable events.

It seems certain from their stories of their trip that their stay in Baddeck was a highlight for them.

With permission from the Harbour Master, Mr. Peters was able to set himself up on the wharf, painting the scenery and the boats that came in, which he sold in decent numbers to the visitors to the town, coming from the roads or the sea.

“We parked our tent trailer in a camp four or five miles down the road,” said Mrs. Peters. “We loved it there.”

So enamoured with Nova Scotia were they that they attempted to buy, rent or lease a property with a run-down motel to fix up and run. In any event, they were definite about staying in the area through to October, until the call came through that Gordon Peters was not at all well. So, they returned to be with him in August.

Since then, Jeff Peters’ time and inclination have not been with his painting.

He ruminated a moment: “Once you stop – you lose all that – you lose the ability to paint.”

However, it appears his artist’s heart is returning to him for he told us, “I think about painting all the time – it’s always with me. In a funny way, that’s how I see the world- what kind of wood is that barn – I sketched a tractor trailer because I liked the shape – I look at colours – I’m sketching now, so, that’s good.”

“I want to make it clear,” he began. “Inspiration to return to painting comes from the encouragement of your loved ones.”

Considering for a moment more, he continued, “My heart was down there – I chose to put it [painting] on hold. Now, for some reason, I’m quite inspired.”

Readers Comments (0)