Peter Saw   AEE (Hudds) C. Eng. MIET.

rocks-n-cogsOriginally from Barnsley in Yorkshire, I now live in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, A Market town in Leicestershire. I worked as an Electrical Engineer for over 30 years in the coal mining industry working at Collieries and National Headquarters. After the demise of UK Coal Mining, thanks to Queen Maggie and King Arthur, and the subsequent loss of a job, I had time on my hands and decided to learn how to paint.

For about a year I attended various courses in watercolour, oil and pastel at local adult educational centres and at Patchings Art Centre near Calverton Nottinghamshire. I quickly found that if you wanted to paint, the most important thing to do was practice, then practice and then practice some more! So that's what I did. I have no formal qualifications in art so I suppose that makes me mainly self taught.

I paint landscapes, seascapes, buildings, flowers and anything else which offers a challenge. I prefer either watercolour or pastel but also work in other media.
I paint from life, photographs and imagination and one of my greatest pleasures is watching paint dry! - Well, it is watercolour! - an excellent pastime while pigment and paper are becoming lightly adhered to each other.

Although I like to be able to recognise the subject in my work, I try to ensure that the magic of the medium will influence its interpretation. I love exploiting all the available effects both from the chemistry of paints, only slightly mixed together, and the surface of the paper. That's what watercolour is about isn't it? 'Don't stir it up too much - Bung it on and then leave it alone' - Watch the paint dry!

Working in pastels evokes memories of my early days in coal mining. You can get really mucky achieving less than nothing - but it's nice!

For four years I taught watercolour and other media at Ivanhoe Community College, an adult learning centre in Ashby de la Zouch. In my teaching I try to give my students the start that I would have liked to have had but mainly failed to find - someone actually showing me how to paint.

I was encouraged by my students to publish my teaching method and 'Interactive Watercolour' was produced in multimedia CD ROM format. It's now in use by hundreds of watercolour painters all over the world. See www.paintdoodles.com

I am a member and past Chairman of  Ashby Art Club.

I have exhibited my work in Leicestershire and the surrounding counties and demonstrated watercolour at the Artists & Illustrators Exhibition, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.

I have paintings in collections in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, USA and Canada.

When I'm not painting, I spend time messing on a computer or I amuse myself trying to play guitar, keyboard or organ - I've been told that my playing would also amuse others but I have a suspicion that I heard something different to what was said!