17.12.65
Born Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear
1970-83 St Aidan's RC School, Tyneside
1983- Started selling paintings and has supported himself by them
ever since
1983-85 Bath Lane Foundation Course, Newcastle Upon Tyne
1983-89 Gallery assistant and then ran own Gallery 2
1989-92 Sunderland University BA Hons and "my arse well and
truly kicked for being a figurative painter"
1990- Started exhibiting in commercial galleries
1992- Solo shows biennially - mostly sold out
2001 Started exhibiting with Mark Jason Fine Art, Bond Street
2003 Founded The Gateshead Stuckists as "a response to the
Baltic's nihilism"
2004 Featured artist, The Stuckists Punk Victorian, Walker
Art Gallery, for the Liverpool Biennial
2006 Go West show, Spectrum London
2007 Head of the Foundation course and the Fine Art lecturer on
their BA course, Northumberland College
Peter
McArdle lives in a Georgian farmhouse in rural Northumberland with
a wife and two sons. He paints seven days a week, starting as early
as 4am. He has chosen to distance himself from city "as a kind
of sabbatical" in order to focus on painting. There are cows
and sheep outside the kitchen window - because of which he ended
up in casualty with Campylobacter. His studio is on the third floor
of the farmhouse.
Working
method
"I
always paint with oil on canvas, which I prime and sand several
times with gesso for a smooth surface. I sketch out in pencil and
use a 000 (cat's whisker) sable brush to refine and define the sketch.
Then I underpaint with burnt umber and glaze on top of that several
weeks later - up to seventeen glazes. Paintings take six to nine
months as an average. Usually a painting changes drastically in
the last three or four months. At the final stage I reject around
a third of the paintings."
"On
a Theme of Annunciation" painting
"It's probably a lot to do with being brought up as a Roman
Catholic, and a transitional moment in my life. Every Saturday night
I went to confession. One day my father asked the priest to tell
him his own sins. The priest clammed up and my father walked out
of confession.. After that we left the church. Years later I went
to Venice for a few weeks and I was confronted by all this religious
imagery which brought back all the guilt. I was inspired by a Titian
painting with a sexual element and also wanted to paint a contemporary
annunciation. These things fused. It gets a bit more complex after
that. The gun is symbolic of penetration yet also of protection.
I expect the viewer to work hard. You need a certain understanding
of history."
Web
site
www.peter-mcarle.com
The
text above has been adapted from The
Stuckists Punk Victorian book (National Museums Liverpool)