A few weeks ago I was up in New Hampshire, once again visiting the Sharon Arts Center, which is regularly a source of favorite painters, pastel artists, etc. I saw a few works by Peter Batchelder and was really taken with his use of color and, of course, the barns and houses he represents through his work.
Peter is a local – he went to UMass-Amherst – and has lived all over New England from Vermont to the Vineyard and now New Hampshire.
His works remind me a bit of Frankie Brackley Tolman’s who I learned about at the same place a few months ago. They’re similar in color palette and subject matter of course!
What’s great about Peter is that some of the artists I see and love in person have zero online presence of their work and that’s certainly not the case with him. It’s hard to take good pictures on my phone and so sometimes I just have to wait til I’m back nearby to grab good pics of things I see but with Peter, his site is easy to find and check out. I think this is due to his background in graphic design.
His colors are so happy! The walls at our new place are kind of a light beige, it’s nice but it requires some punches of color to keep it interesting! We have a few large works on the walls already but definitely need more. I wish that Peter’s works were more like four feet across!
I’m pretty sure I know where the above barn is, or one just like it in NH and I think it’s one that lots of local artists paint. I wish that they would do a show of ten different artists’ views on the same barn – I’d line a wall at the house with them!
Tags: 2D, barn, decor, houses, local, New England, painting, pastel