Peter Burton

Peter Burton began painting and drawing when he was a teenager. At the age of nineteen he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and for nearly thirty years had no interest in continuing with his art.
One day four years ago he found some scrap paper and old felt tip pens and again began to draw. He draws and paints every day. He is prolific. The motifs for his work are often portraits that tend to be in sequences with several being worked on simultaneously. He will revisit the same subject and composition multiple times. The interesting thing about his work is not so much their seeming similarity, but in the quite marked contrast and experimentation that happens across a series. It is astonishing that although he had not picked up a pencil or paintbrush for thirty years, his sensibility and technical skill as an Artist was evident even from the first sketches. Making sense of his work can present something of a conundrum to the viewer; the question of his mental health (if known about) cannot but impose assumptions and perhaps prejudice in interpretation. Peter is not forthcoming in explaining his work. It is also unclear if or for how long he will continue to produce this extraordinary work.
Statement by Tina Burton (Peter's Sister)...