 |
Peter Liddle (b.1940) is a British Landscape Painter and Sculptor. During his formative years in London he painted abstract works often experimenting with the optical effects he found fascinating in Vasarely and Seurat. Since then he has lived in both Cornwall and Cumbria where he allowed the wild and rugged natural beauty of his surroundings to enter his imagination. However, the optical potential of colour remains significant in Liddle’s work and one can often spot a lay line flashing across his canvases. Liddle has a keen interest in Renaissance techniques of composition and has entertained tour groups in the galleries and streets of Florence with his stories of Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Donatello. |
|
| Liddle (2011) Julia McIntosh Photography |
|
| Selection of Liddle’s work |
oil on canvas (date)
oil on canvas (date)
oil on canvas (date)
oil on canvas (date)
oil on canvas (date)
oil on canvas (date)
oil on canvas (date)
granite from north berwick (date)
? (date)
welsh jasper (date)Liddle also spent many years teaching life drawing and painting at evening classes at Ullswater Community College in Penrith. He made a big impression on his students, so much so that one of the many pupils who later became professional artists said he might never have considered a career in art had it not been for Liddle’s classes. I was one of his students too and have had a passion for art ever since. We kept in touch after I left Ullswater and often discussed our latest projects and trips – his to the wild places of the British Isles and mine to the galleries of continental Europe.
While an architecture student I had often wanted to design an exhibition space for Liddle but the opportunity never arose and it took several years for me to begin the project in earnest.
 |
|
Satellite image south west of Penrith, Cumbria. Top left Ullswater, bottom left Haweswater |
 |
| Satellite image of house, garden and farm buildings |
At the time I began designing, Liddle lived at a remote cottage on a fell near Askham, between Penrith and Shap. The natural site for the project was a barn adjacent to the property. However I was in Austria for a period of months and had to begin with only a vague memory of the existing building and no survey drawings. So I started designing an entrance and entry room.
 |
| Watercolour of doorways |
I had become fascinated by aquiline ripples after staring for hours at the reflections of an alpine lake and designed the portals in a way to capture the essence of moving water. I imagined I could do this by casting the form of striations found in sandy beaches. The first sliding doors would be turquoise glass etched or cast with ripples and the second pivoting doors would be of bronze (the first Renaissance reference).
Below are some studies I completed in lead from the beach at Allonby, West Cumbria, where Liddle often goes to collect drift wood for sculpting.
 |
| Beach Casts lead ø10” & 8”x14” (2011) |
 |
| Watercolour of entrance room |
I envisioned the entry room as a decompression chamber where you might stop or a least slow down and prepare yourself for the experience. For that reason it is the most richly coloured and textured space featuring several kinds of natural stone including the highly prized, local Shap granite which has a beautiful pink pattern with large crystals.
Once back in England, I resumed work on the project and began deciding out how to integrate the entry into the existing barn and how to utilise the rest of the space.
In order to accommodate the height needed for two floors, the eaves had to be raised and I took the opportunity to reorganise the roof. A flat roof would be inserted over the entrance and planted with meadow flowers and grass to give the impression of a ruin. The main part of the roof would be reinstalled with a radical twist.
Several considerations informed the design of this roof. I wanted to introduce north light and had been taken by a sky light in a Hans Scharoun building where the roof appeared to bubble up to form an opening similar to an eyelid. I also wanted to continue the wave motive and make a dramatic architectural statement to counterpoint the relatively simple interior.
In order to maximise the drama of the interior and particularly the roof I wanted the upper storey to take the form of a gallery or balcony – opening up the space.
The floor of the exhibition space is a dark grey concrete, bordered and broken by bands of carrera marble (another Renaissance reference.)
The furniture is all bespoke, each a celebration of materials: timber, brass and steel.
The video below explains Liddle’s work, the site and includes a detailed walk-through.