Two watercolours are up for auction....

…at Anderson & Garland Auctioneers in Newcastle (and online) on Wednesday 20th March.

LOT 566 is "Dunstanburgh Castle from Newton", signed and dated 28th November '73.
We know from notes on an exhibition catalogue that it was sold originally at the Bondgate Gallery in Alnwick for the princely sum of £50 - about £650 in today’s money.

LOT 577 is "Footbridge Skye", signed, annotated, and dated '92. This painting has never been sold before as John gifted it to a good friend.

https://www.andersonandgarland.com/auction/search/?st=john%20peace&sto=0&au=692&sf=%5B%5D&w=False&pn=1

Turn of the Century

John continued to paint and exhibit work and to teach as a visiting lecturer at universities in Newcastle and Sheffield as well as giving lessons at the occasional amateur art class. “Eric’s Cafe” was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2009.

This pair of oils painted in 2005 (“Whitby Sands, The White Pony” and “Whitby Sands, The Brown Donkey”) depicts idyllic scenes on the North Yorkshire coast. Like countless others John spent many happy days here with his children and grandchildren. He had these paintings reproduced as prints (available in our website shop) entitled “Beside the Seaside – the White Pony” and “Beside the Seaside – the Brown Donkey”. He could be inconsistent with the naming of his paintings – which keeps us on our toes! 

The 1990s

During this decade John & RoseMary travelled frequently to France, Scotland, Holland and Spain and also to Germany and Greece. John painted many beautiful landscapes throughout this time, most of which were sold through the Chris Beetles Gallery in London and through exhibitions at the Dean Gallery in Newcastle and the Vicarage Cottage Gallery in North Shields. The only records we have of the majority of these paintings are titles (and sometimes mediums and sizes or prices) listed in bills of sale or in catalogues.

This oil painting is of John’s wife RoseMary trying to get warm in front of a Godin stove and was painted in Northern France over Christmas 1991. It is one of the many we’ve lost track of.

We are on the hunt for details of as many works as possible so that we can add them to information for the catalogue raisonne we are working towards publishing. If you can help in any way we’d be very grateful if you could email us at info@johnpeacepaintings.co.uk Thank you!

Christmas is coming....

Christmas cards are now on sale through the website along with our mounted, high quality giclee prints and copies of the wonderful book “Tyne & Tide”. There’s also the option to buy gift cards which can either be sent by post or by email for that last minute present. Email info@johnpeacepaintings.co.uk with any special requests and we’ll do our best to help! Profits go a little way towards helping us to protect and promote John’s work.

For guaranteed delivery please place orders by Monday 18th December.

The 1980s

Having taught at Sunderland College of Art for twenty five years, John retired in 1988. He then turned his attention to painting full-time, though continued to inspire students as a visiting lecturer at universities in Newcastle and Sheffield as well as teaching the occasional art class. He continued to exhibit with the Mowbray Gallery in Sunderland, the Bondgate in Alnwick, the Dean Gallery in Newcastle and the Vicarage Cottage Gallery in North Shields. From the late 1980s he was also represented by the Chris Beetles Gallery in London. 

“Winter – Valley of the West Allen near Ninebanks”, 1989 

The 1970s

John had been teaching at Sunderland College of Art since the early ‘60s, often painting into the early hours after work and on his days off. In the early 1970s he bought a VW campervan and spent long summer breaks from college touring with his young family, first around Northumberland and Scotland for a few summers before venturing across the channel to Europe. Although John’s focus remained painting around the North-East, these trips further afield afforded him new subject matter.

The 1960s

This was an exciting decade for John - both professionally & personally. He joined an august selection of artists who exhibited at the Stone Gallery in Newcastle - L.S. Lowry, Norman Cornish & Sheila Fell among them - and he began a long and very productive relationship with the Bondgate Gallery in Alnwick. Having married in 1959, the 1960’s saw the births of John & RoseMary’s six children.

The 1950s

Having moved on from South Shields to Leeds School of Art, where his work was seen as outdated by his lecturers (so much so that he was banished to an attic room to work on his own so that he wouldn’t influence other students), John won a scholarship to the Slade School of Art in London. He was one of the youngest in his year group but was deadly serious about his work - a quality he later admired and rewarded in his own students. He completed his diploma in two years, rather than the usual three. National Service followed, first as a private with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and then as a sergeant in the Intelligence Corps in Cyprus. We have recently found a portfolio of around 100 sketches and watercolours from this period which we’re busy recording. A very small selection is below.

The 1940s.....

By his mid-teens John had become increasingly serious about becoming a painter despite the fact that, as the oldest of five siblings, the expectation was that he would take on the family grocery business or work in the local coal mine. It was John’s secondary school art teacher who persuaded his parents that he should be permitted to apply for a place at South Shields School of Art. John always spoke fondly his tutors there, describing his formative two years at the art school as some of the happiest and most fulfilling of his life. Painted in 1949 while a student at South Shields, “Lemington Point”, is one of John’s earliest known works.

Letter from John’s friend and fellow student, Allan Graham, with some early memories of their time studying at South Shields. 

A Lifetime of Painting - The 1930s

For the remainder of 2023, in celebration of what would have been John’s 90th year, each month we’re going to share some memories from a decade of his life. Pictured here is his first known work - “House” - which his mother said was painted when he was just two years old. A note on the back in John’s hand, however, says it was more likely to have been done at the age of four.

The accompanying photo shows John at about two and a half years old outside his Nanna Elliot’s house in Lemington. “Nanna Elliot” was actually no relation, but a trusted friend of John’s mother, who often looked after him and his young siblings while his parents were running their grocer’s shop. A sensitive child, John later recalled that one of his earliest memories was of being very concerned about the most suitable arrangement for the bottom of his woollen jersey for the photograph - would it be best rolled up, or down? His resolution to this “problem of proportional relationships” was to have it half rolled up, and half rolled down!

Thinking of John on his 90th birthday....

From infancy until shortly before his death at the age of eighty-four, John’s thoughts were occupied with capturing what he observed around him. It was a desire awakened as a small child when he watched the shadows from the gas-mantle bubbling across his bedroom ceiling and wanted to record them somehow. The compulsion remained with him for life. In the late summer of 2017 as he sat in bed watching his wife RoseMary sewing in the fading evening light, John asked for a pencil and paper; it was a few days before he died and was to be his last drawing. Between those two moments lie a whole lifetime’s work devoted to capturing subjects that drew his eye; countless drawings and hundreds of oil and watercolour paintings.

"Reclamation Percy Pit"

We’ve donated one of John’s larger watercolours "Reclamation Percy Pit” to the Gemini Trust, an extensive collection of Mining Art gathered together over more than 25 years by Gillian Wales & Dr Bob McManners. The painting will be on show now and again at the Mining Art Gallery which is part of the wonderful Auckland Project in Bishop Auckland in County Durham. You can read about the painting on our shop page.

Auckland Castle, Auckland Tower, three galleries, a museum, the walled garden, deer park, restaurants and shops are all open again on 22nd February after a winter break. It makes for a fantastic day out! Visit their website here: https://aucklandproject.org/plan-a-visit/.

Last orders........

We’re very grateful for all the Christmas orders we’ve had so far. It’s really interesting to see what people choose and brilliant to know just how much John’s work is enjoyed and appreciated. We’re sending out orders on the day they’re placed and posting out next day delivery with different couriers but it’s all taking a little longer than we’d like this year. We’ll do our absolute best to deliver in time for Christmas but can’t promise. Don’t forget though that we also do online gift cards, so if a parcel is too last minute for comfort, the lucky recipient can sit with a glass of something warming and browse the website over Christmas and make their own choice instead.

With very best wishes for a lovely Christmas from John’s family.

Happy shopping !

We’ve just refreshed our website shop so now have Christmas and greetings cards on sale, along with more prints and the last few copies of “Tyne & Tide”, the book we published to accompany the exhibition in South Shields. If there’s a painting you really like but can’t see a print of it, let us know at info@johnpeacepaintings and we’ll try to arrange one for you. Special orders take a little longer but prices are the same as the ones in the shop. A selection of cards are now also on sale at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, South Shields Museum & Art Gallery and at the Mining Art Gallery which is part of the wonderful Auckland Project in Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham. The sale of the book, cards and prints helps us to protect and promote John’s work.

Under the hammer......

A moody, winter seascape by John called “Sea Coal on a Beach, Northumberland,” signed & dated Feb 22nd 1967 is up for auction at Anderson & Garland in Newcastle on Thursday 13th October. AUCTION LINK HERE

John has written the title of the painting on a label which is stuck to the back of it and also wrote “number 3” which is a very strong indication that it was shown (& probably bought originally) at an exhibition. Typically John exhibited and sold paintings in the year that they were painted. We know of no exhibitions between 1966 - 1970 which we’ve always thought a bit strange as it was a very productive period in John’s life and we’ve also no record at all of a painting with this title. All in all, it is very likely that there is at least one more exhibitions’ worth of paintings to add to our currently “missing” 435.

Another chance....

We published a beautifully illustrated colour catalogue to accompany the Tyne & Tide Exhibition in South Shields. It’s a good read as it contains an introduction by the curator Geoff Woodward, a biography, features on the family’s search for missing paintings as well as memories of John’s home town of Lemington and a personal epilogue by the esteemed author Michael Chaplin. The 1st edition sold out but some 2nd edition copies are available for £15 including postage. When they’re gone, they’re gone !!! Email us at info@johnpeacepaintings.co.uk if you’d like to buy one.

North-East Culture Awards 2022

The Award is an annual celebration of the thriving arts and cultural scene in the NE of England and we’re very proud and pleased that “Tyne & Tide”, the retrospective exhibition of a collection of John’s North East work, has been entered for an award under the best Event or Exhibition category. We’re keeping everything crossed that the team from Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums gets the recognition it deserves for mounting such an impressive & culturally significant exhibition which has resonated with so many people across the NE and beyond.

Going, going, gone !

Five of John’s paintings will be going under the hammer on Thursday 21st July at Anderson & Garland Auctioneers in Newcastle. They are from the collection of one of the owners of the Bondgate Gallery, Alnwick and are being sold by her estate. They were painted in the late 1960s / early 1970s.

Paste this link into your browser to take a look and register for online bidding : www.andersonandgarland.com/auction/search/?st=john%20peace&sto=0&au=539&w=False&pn=1

22,567 people......

…..visited the “Tyne & Tide” exhibition which closed last month. We had no idea what to expect but we’re really pleased that so many people got to see a selection of John’s works. The response has been wonderful.

We’ve been made aware that there’s an original oil painting called “Inner Farne from Bamburgh” for sale at auction on 16th June. Use the link below to the Anderson & Garland website to find out more : https://www.andersonandgarland.com/auction/lot/lot-766---john-peace---oil-on-board/?lot=284288&so=0&st=peace&sto=0&au=521&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=100&pn=1&g=-1#

Last few days......

……to see the exhibition at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery. It’s open 10 - 5pm ‘til Friday 6th May & 11 - 4pm on Sat 7th then that’s it - those 80 works will probably never all been seen together again !

Many thanks to everyone who went to see the exhibition and to those that supported it by promoting it and telling others about it. Thanks also to all those who loaned paintings and objects, bought prints, cards and the poster and book that accompanied the exhibition. John would have been very happy that so many people were interested and got to see his wonderful work.