STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL, PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PETER WATTS

It’s hard not to think of lines from Les Murray, when confronted by a Peter Watts canvas, Murray writes, “In the afternoon, a blue storm walloped and split like a loose mainsail behind us. Then another far out on the plain fumed its corrugated walls. A heavy dough of cloud kept rising, and reached us.”

Born and bred in Horsham, Western Victoria, Peter Watts’ weekends were religiously spent outdoors, sleeping beneath the stars and setting up camp among the sandstone ridges and waterfalls of the Grampians National Park and The Black Ranges.

Speaking of his favourite season, Peter fires quickly, “Summer...because my grass grows. I can cut my grass and it smells beautiful. What do I do in winter? I sit in my shed and paint winter paintings.” He pauses, “Those memories of exploring the bush in my youth are still vividly present.”

Echoing the sentiment of J.M.W Turner’s shipwreck storms and the impressionism of the Heidelberg school, Peter’s paintings immortalize the ominous cloudscapes and sobering winters of Central Victoria—his endearing brushstrokes bring together wild combinations of weather, shades and time. To him, they’re ingredients that colour a landscape we call home.

“I love observing cloud formations during inclement weather, the dark colours present in storms, and the rain, lightning and thunder,” says Peter. “I arrived at painting these cloudscapes and landscapes as a means to capture the sky’s beauty and power.”

While looking at Peter’s paintings, we realise that life is at the mercy of nature. “These storms can kill you, they’re lightning strikes that can kill you. I like to put that shining light of hope in there somewhere.” When poked about how much of Peter Watts is on the canvas, he quipps, “Trust me, it doesn't reflect my mind. My mind is clear and sunny.”

Peter can often be found chasing a fleeting moment, when clouds momentarily part to reveal a ray of sunshine pouring through the fractures of a storm.

“I try to notice things that most people look at but don’t fully see. I love watching the minute details of powerful storms as they roll over the farm,” reflects Peter. “The energy in them is amazing. But we can’t psychically stand where the light is breaking through a moody cloudscape, so I paint to capture and evoke the potency of those fleeting moments.”

With more than 30 years as creative design director of his own international award-winning design agency Watts Design under his belt, Peter decided to purchase some land in Bullarto and return to his passion for paint.

“Our 10-acre property was a sparse field when we bought it from a spud farmer. Bullarto sits among the beautifully dense Wombat State Forest, but there wasn’t a single tree on our plot. Slowly, with a lot of hard work, we’ve transformed it into a verdant paradise. We’ve planted 500 trees, including 250 productive olives trees and some beautiful decorative deciduous European varieties.”

Peter’s paintings are both an extension of his design practice and a place to explore and experiment freely, without boundaries or a brief. “When I design, it’s for a purpose. And rules are difficult to break unless you have a free thinking understanding client. Design is always for someone else. Painting is for me.”

And for him, there’s poetry there. “I like catching the landscapes and the dilapidated sheds that someone lived in once upon a time. And it’s about to fall over. You see that around in the paddocks. I love all the smoke coming from their fires, to show that it’s actually freezing cold, wet and shit. But beautiful at the same time. Daylesford’s renowned for its winter.”

Today his paintings are exhibited in Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and for sale in major regional art galleries including Bromley & Co in Daylesford.

Peter Watts

peter@peterwattsart.com

www.peterwattsart.com