"Shopping Trip" by Peter Lankas

"Shopping Trip" by Peter Lankas
Gouache, wax on board
40cm x 50cm
Painted during the lockdown last year as a response to life’s emotional and physical hardships that swept most of us. It is a comment on isolation in the modern world that some experience no matter the time and the relationship we have with the natural world via an unnatural process. 
My interest lies in the ordinary, mundane, everyday experiences that may present themselves and the narrative that can be distilled, a momentary glimpse into our daily existence via light colour, pattern and mood. It is the contradiction of how this can be seen as both beautiful and totally ugly that I find compelling or interesting. 

About the Artist
Peter is an award-winning artist as well as an art educator and mentor of 35 years. Primarily a painter with a strong focus on drawing, he has worked in Newcastle since his arrival in 2000, documenting the beauty of the mundane and the ordinary, with focus on the suburban milieu, via ‘en plein air’ and studio works which deal with personal and social narratives. Since 2002 he has held 22 solo and major exhibitions in the Newcastle region and Sydney as well as countless group shows. 
He is a passionate fine art teacher with a Fine Art Master’s degree in painting, working in the community, Newcastle Art School (Tafe) as well as mentoring young artists in the local area and formerly taught at University of Newcastle.
His focus is on the process of art making and the alchemy of painting, making his own oil paints, organic mediums and varnishes based on the early Old Masters processes of solvent free oil painting which he has worked with for over ten years. 
In Newcastle, he has exhibited with John Miller gallery, Art Systems, Gallery 139 as well as artist run Spaces, Pod space and NAS gallery. His work has been exhibited in Regional Art galleries and is held in private and government collections in Australia and overseas.