Roy Petley
Encyclopedia
Roy Petley is a contemporary British artist renowned for his impressionist oil paintings. Petley paints en plein air, which is a French expression meaning "in the open air", to create his popular works that depict the wide expanse of English beaches and the gentle allure of Venetian landscapes. His works have been likened to those of John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...

, Edward Seago
Edward Seago
Edward Brian Seago RBA ARWS RWS was an English artist who painted in both oils and watercolours.The son of a coal merchant, born in Norwich, Seago was a self-taught artist, , and enjoyed a wide range of admirers from the British Royal family and the Aga Khan to the common man...

, and Campbell Mellon, British painters whose styles were influenced by the Barbizon School
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...

 and Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

. Beginning life in a children's home, he became one of the first artists to open an art gallery in Cork Street
Cork Street
Cork Street is a street in Mayfair in the West End of London, England. It is very well known in the British art world for the commercial art galleries that dominate the street. It is located to the north of Burlington House, which houses the Royal Academy, a leading British art institution...

, a prestigious street lined with art galleries in London's Mayfair. His works are popularly collected by British royalty, including Her Late Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Early life and background

The first-born son of a large family, Roy Petley was born on 3 April 1951 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. When he was five, Petley was abandoned to the Woodlands School near Uckfield, Sussex. The school also doubled as a home for abandoned children. He escaped his rough and often violent surroundings through art, teaching himself how to paint and draw. At the age of sixteen, he received a scholarship to study art at Brighton University. But the pull of Italy and the country's old masters of art such as Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

 and Michaelangelo proved too much. After a semester at Brighton University, he hitchhiked to Italy, settling in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 where he eked out a living by drawing tourists who frequent the numerous cafes of the city and studied the classics at the Uffizi Gallery
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...

 and Palazzo Pitti
Palazzo Pitti
The Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio...

. It was also in Florence that Petley had the chance to work with the collections of old master prints and drawings of the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi Gallery.

Career

Petley was only seventeen when he returned to England in 1968. At first, he headed for Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 where the Bell Gallery provided support and encouragement for the young artist. But after some time in Ireland, Petley returned to London and succeeded in exhibiting his paintings in the galleries of the city's high-end shops such as Liberty's and Heal's. To support his art, he worked in the art department of the Greenwich Theatre.
By the age of 21, Petley left the theatre world altogether and began exhibiting his works on the railings of Green Park
Green Park
-External links:*...

 in London. In the 70s, the perimeter of the park was home to mostly struggling local artists selling their works to the passing public. Exhibiting on Sundays, the Green Park railings were then respectably called "The Open Air Art Show". Though this tradition still continues, railings has since been occupied by individuals peddling tourist gifts and paintings made in China. He achieved minor success with American art dealers who took great interest in his work.
Following a chance encounter with The Duchess of Kent, a member of the late Queen Mother's household staff came to look at his works. Soon after William Tallon
William Tallon
William John Stephenson Tallon, RVM was a steward and extrovert member of the Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother's staff at Clarence House.-Early life:Tallon was born in Coventry where he also went to school...

, the late Queen Mother's steward, returned to her with Petley's portrait study of Prince Charles, Petley was summoned to the Palace. Thus began the artist's long-standing friendship with the British Royals, which includes HRH The Prince of Wales, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and The Duchess of Norfolk as his supporters. Exhibitions ensued in London and Dublin, and in places as far away as Dallas, Texas and the island of Barbados.

Art

In every work of art, Petley incorporates a play of light and shadows. As he moves from his natural medium of oil to watercolour or pastel to sanguine, there remains a certain youthful light emanates from his paintings. A plein air painter, his works reflect his surroundings - from the quiet beaches of Norfolk and the picturesque parks of Paris to his subtle nudes draped with sheets and sunlight. He captures the romanticism of days gone by, with nary a modern automobile or electrical appliance blemishing his canvas. Renowned British art critic, Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...

, described Petley as "a painter who still paints, who brushes watercolour onto paper and oil paint onto canvas, a painter who even settles down to draw the nude from life - an absurdly old-fashioned discipline for an artist to pursue."

Petleys

Petleys is a fine art gallery based in London. It was first known as Petley Fine Art. In October 2003, with his son Jason and a business partner, Petley established the London gallery with the intent of providing opportunities and promoting the work of other artists. The gallery is located in Cork Street, home of numerous art galleries of great repute, the Royal Academy of Arts, and based in the affluent Mayfair district of London. In the spring of 2004, a second gallery was opened in Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

 and the gallery often participated in the Monte Carlo Fine Art & Antiques Fair. The gallery's line-up of artists include established portrait painters Neil Forster, whose sitters have included the HRH Prince of Wales and Martin Yeoman, who is a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a British association of portrait painters which holds an annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London...

; as well as international artists such as Vincente Romero from Spain and Yuri Krotov from Russia. On June 2009, Petley Fine Art was reformed into Petleys.

Gallery of works

To view gallery of works and published articles on Roy Petley, click here

List of exhibitions

  • 1968: Drawings, Bell Gallery, Belfast
  • 1970: Liberty's Gallery, London; Heal's Gallery, London
  • 1972: The Open Air Art Show, Green Park, London
  • 1973: Crome Gallery, Norfolk
  • 1975: Liberty's Gallery, London
  • 1976: Heal's Gallery, London; One-Man Exhibition, Crome Gallery, Norwich; The Small Gallery, Norwich
  • 1977: Crome Gallery, Norwich
  • 1978: Traveling Show, East Anglian Marine Artists, Cambridge; One-Man Exhibition, Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
  • 1979: Traveling Show, East Anglian Marine Artists, Ipswich; Watercolours of Venice, Crome Gallery, Norwich; Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
  • 1980: Traveling Show, East Anglian Marine Artists, Cambridge
  • 1981: Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
  • 1982: Australian Paintings, Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
  • 1983: Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames; Fermoy Gallery, King's Lynn
  • 1984: Figures and Flowers, Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames; Casa de Cultura, Estepona, Spain; Alpine Gallery, London
  • 1985: Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames; One-Man Exhibition, Don Carlos Hotel, Marbella, Spain; Alpine Gallery, London; The Open Air Arts Show, Green Park, London
  • 1986: Galeria Arte, Benehavis, Spain; Paintings from the Mediterranean, Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
  • 1987: Alpine Gallery, London; Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames; Fine Art Trade Guild Gallery, London
  • 1988: Fine Art Trade Guild Gallery, London; Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
  • 1989: One-Man Exhibition, Oughertson Gallery, Barbados; Fine Art Trade Guild Gallery, London; One-Man Exhibition, Mistral Gallery, London
  • 1990: One-Man Exhibition, Oughertson Gallery, Barbados
  • 1991: One-Man Exhibition, Solomon Gallery, Dublin
  • 1992: The Bruton St. Gallery, London
  • 1993: Davis Messum, Cork St, London
  • 1994: Davis Messum, Cork St, London (watercolours); David Messum, Cork St, London (oil paintings)
  • 1995: Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin; David Messum, Cork St, London
  • 1996: The Victorian Gallery, Dallas, Texas
  • 1997: The Victorian Gallery, Dallas, Texas; David Messum, Cork St, London; Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin
  • 1998: David Messum, Cork St, London; Sammer Gallery, Marbella, Spain
  • 1999: David Messum, Cork St, London; The Victorian Gallery, Dallas, Texas
  • 2000: David Messum, Cork St, London
  • 2001: The Eakin Gallery, Belfast
  • 2002: The Little Gallery, Saint Emilion, France
  • 2003: Stables Gallery, County Antrim; Petley Fine Art, London
  • 2004: Petley Fine Art, London & Monte Carlo; The Little Gallery, Saint Emilion
  • 2005: Petley Fine Art, London & Monte Carlo
  • 2006: Petley Fine Art, London & Monte Carlo
  • 2007: Petley Fine Art, London & Monte Carlo; The Little Gallery, Saint Emilion
  • 2008: Petley Fine Art, London & Monte Carlo
  • 2009: Petleys
  • 2010: Petleys

Collections

  • His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
  • Her Late Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
  • Her Grace The Duchess of Norfolk
  • Durban Museum
  • Lord Hanson
  • Frederick Forsyth
  • Mr & Mrs R.K. Black
  • His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
  • Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent
  • Ulster Museum
  • Harvard University
  • Susan George
  • Timothy Dalton
  • The Sultan of Brunei
  • The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin

External links

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