Pete Robinson
by Brenda Ross
'There are two groups of people: those who buy lots of pictures and those who never buy pictures,' says Peter Robinson of Luton, Bedfordshire, a full-time artist for almost twenty years. 'I am surprised at the number of people who admire my paintings and say, "They're lovely, but I don't have any wall space." These people never change their pictures and only have a few.'
The exception to this is younger people: 'When they change their decor they change their pictures, but they buy cheap prints and treat them as "disposable art".' At the time of our conversation Peter had just seen a news item that said people now want very large, colourful pictures that go with their decor; 'big, brown, swirly and anonymous' was how one person had described it. The most popular picture sold by one furnishing store group was an enormous white rose, printed on canvas. This type of preference was borne out when Peter tried exhibiting at a homes show and found his work was next to 'huge pictures that were all orange, except for a blue streak, and cost £400 each'.
Not the kind of thing that Peter is likely to produce, but there are people who do not follow trends and still like the type of countryside views, and other scenes, that he produces. 'I keep thinking I must do something different, but it comes back to what sells. The bulk of my sales are still traditional landscapes.' He has a good customer base, who keep returning: 'There are lots of people who have half a dozen or more of my paintings.'
'As with anyone doing a craft over a long period, work evolves,' says Peter. 'People say my work has changed, but I have very little work from when I started to compare. I had no style of my own then. I didn't know what would sell, and did a bit of this and a bit of that.'
Peter works mainly in watercolours. 'I love pencil drawing but it is difficult to sell; it can get very detailed so takes a long time, and you cannot get the price for it, unless you go into prints.
'Most of my paintings seem to include trees, but that is not a conscious decision; I don't really study trees and cannot identify all the different species. I don't paint many summer pictures, because plain blue sky is not very interesting. I prefer winter scenes, and early morning or evening skies, which have more atmosphere.'
As a result of holidays spent in France, Peter has painted many French scenes. A sketchbook accompanies him on holiday and his wife takes photographs; these, and postcards, provide the inspiration for paintings when he returns home.
A few years ago he began painting square landscapes, instead of rectangular, which was unusual then, but now more people are doing them. Two years ago Peter started what he calls his 'verticalist' style: a pen and ink drawing overlaid with vertical blocks of colour, which gives a contemporary feel. He would like to have an exhibition entirely of paintings in this style. More recently he has been experimenting with acrylic abstracts, which he leaves around in his studio, upstairs in his house, to see how they grow on him.
Several years ago Peter had some of his paintings reproduced on cards and sold them to the public, including some amusing seaside scenes. This year he was approached by a company that is now producing and selling these cards again, to shops, although the colours are printed in brighter shades than the stormy-looking conditions he produced originally. In recent years, as Peter has slowed down production of his paintings, he has had prints made of some of them, the best seller being a bluebell wood. However, although the prints are cheaper, he still sells mainly originals.
'I have always liked to draw and paint, since I was old enough to hold a pencil,' he says. 'At school it was what I was best at, and when anyone asked what I wanted to do, I always said I wanted to be an artist.' The reality of having to earn a living intervened, however. Having left school at 15, years passed in factory jobs, two years' National Service, and then working in the central heating industry for a long time, while painting remained a hobby. 'I used to dream about being an artist, but I had a mortgage and a wife and young daughter, so had to earn a living.'
Then, fed up with his job and having the opportunity to take a lump sum and leave, he talked it over with his wife and decided to try being a full-time artist for a year. That was in 1986, and he has never looked back. 'I had been selling at craft fairs now and again for about five years, so I had been eased into selling my work and knew a few organisers. At first I did a lot of fairs - about two a month. There was a network of craft fairs then and you got to know which were best. Since then I think organisers have started doing too many fairs. It isn't possible to fill so many craft fairs with good craftspeople; there aren't enough to go round.'
To sell at shows he produces paintings in just four sizes, so he can get mounts and frames made up in larger, more economic quantities. Prices range from £55 (unframed) to £350 (framed). For a four or five-day show he needs 50-60 paintings for his stand, and on average he sells 200 a year. Over the years Peter has tried different ways of selling his work. For the last few years he has exhibited at various garden shows, including major events like the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and BBC Gardeners' World Live, where his landscapes appeal to the gardening visitors.
He sold to a Reading gallery for a few years, and another gallery is now selling his French scenes. 'But most galleries want the work on sale or return,' he says, 'and it would be difficult to keep track of everything if I supplied too many galleries.' He has also had exhibitions, but found their success depended very much on being in the right place.
In the mall of the Milton Keynes shopping centre there used to be a hand-cart that could be rented by the week, reserved for artists. Peter found this worth hiring several times a year, but unfortunately at the end of last year it was discontinued.
Some years ago he tried house portraits, but found he had started at too cheap a price and was not being sent photographs of the upmarket type of property that would make a good painting. He is having more success with the pet portraits he has started, also painted from customers' photographs. Now that he has passed retirement age, and his wife has retired, Peter wants to cut down on his work. 'I can't afford to give up completely, and I would always want to paint anyway. I don't want to stop going to shows, because you have to keep your name out there and they can be fun to do, but I am aiming to do fewer shows and more commissions from home.'
Peter Robinson
8 Fountains Road, Luton
Bedfordshire LU3 1LU
T: 01582 728080
