Peter Barrett
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
and children's book author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. He is best known for illustrating several James Herriot
James Herriot
James Herriot was the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight , an English veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many years of experiences as a veterinarian to write a series of books of stories about animals and their owners...
's books as well as for his detailed watercolour paintings of English wildlife and the countryside.
Background
Peter Barrett was a graphic designer and illustrator by profession. In 1972, he moved into a woodland retreat in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and has concentrated on finely detailed watercolours of English wildlife and large nature abstracts since then. He is well established as a children's book illustrator, animal artist and a nature artist
Wildlife art
Wildlife art is one of humanity's earliest art forms, dating back to prehistoric cave paintings such as those found at the grotto of Lascaux in France....
.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Barrett teamed up with Franklin Porcelain. Franklin Porcelain used "Peter Barrett" as a signature brand. Among his crafted and painted products with Franklin Porcelain were a set of thimbles with handpainted images of birds on them, a set of 12 plates with images of the twelve months in the country handpainted on them (called "The Country Years"), a set of plates with handpainted depictions of animals (titled "All Creatures Great and Small") and porcelain figurines of birds. The porcelain figurines of birds were placed upon a porcelain bell. Hence, Bell Birds.
Peter Barrett designed and provided the artwork for a set of United Kingdom postage stamps
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day....
depicting dogs in 1979. A commemorative first day cover
First day of issue
A First Day of Issue Cover or First Day Cover is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for use within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority. Sometimes the issue is made from a temporary or permanent foreign or...
was also brought out.
Illustrations
Peter Barrett's career as an illustrator took off after writing and illustrating a three book series for very young children, along with his wife Susan Barrett. Published by Ward Lock, the books (The circle Sara drew, The square Ben drew, The line Sophie drew) became very popular. Barrett subsequently concentrated on animal art and illustrations, illustrating numerous children's non-fiction books, specializing in dogs, horses and dinosaurs. His illustrations for Birdwatcher's Diary, by Roger Lovegrove, in 1982 drew critical acclaim.A biographical perspective of his work was published in 1986 by his wife Susan Barrett titled "Travels with a wildlife artist: the living landscape of Greece". Peter Barrett illustrated the book and also contributed to the text. In the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, his stature as an animal artist and children's book illustrator has grown hand in hand. Peter Barrett illustrated reprints and collections of famous animal centric stories and books by Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell
Gerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell, OBE was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter...
, Desmond Morris
Desmond Morris
Desmond John Morris, born 24 January 1928 in Purton, north Wiltshire, is a British zoologist and ethologist, as well as a popular anthropologist. He is also known as a painter, television presenter and popular author.-Life:...
and James Herriot
James Herriot
James Herriot was the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight , an English veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many years of experiences as a veterinarian to write a series of books of stories about animals and their owners...
. He illustrated a number of books under the highly popular Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books is a popular series of children's books. The first 12 titles were published on October 1, 1942:#Three Little Kittens#Bedtime Stories#Mother Goose#Prayers for Children#The Little Red Hen#Nursery Songs...
label for children. He has also illustrated the 1987 Random House edition of the children's classic The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
, by Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....
.
In 2005, he illustrated the 65th Anniversary Edition of Three Little Pigs
Three Little Pigs
Three Little Pigs is a fairy tale featuring anthropomorphic animals. Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older...
, published by Ladybird Books
Ladybird Books
Ladybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books.-History:...
.
In 2009, he illustrated Evolution: The Story of Life by Douglas Palmer, published by The University of California Press.