Artist Spotlight: Peter Dee

This Artist’s Spotlight is dedicated to the painter Peter Dee and his still life paintings.

Originally from Kerry, Ireland, Dee moved to Dublin early in his twenties. Like his homeland, his paintings are timeless and quaint.

As a still life painter myself, I am in awe of the technical knowledge and dedication to details he must have to paint the way he does.

I found myself drawn into these quiet paintings, similarly to how I was drawn to Giorgio Morandi as a young artist. That’s who I immediately thought of when I came across Dee’s work, just a few days ago.

I wanted to find another, more contemporary artist, who captures the same essence as Morandi did.

Morandi is timeless, mysterious, and maybe a bit too simple for some people. There’s no sense of space. No sense of time or scale, other than what one objects tells us about another. The calmness is what makes looking at Morandi and Dee’s paintings therapeutic. Like I can catch a break from the constant outside noise and chaos.

Peter Dee combines a sense of peaceful memory and technical precision that is rare to come by. In using the comfort of everyday and vintage objects, his work is approachable. You’re not looking for a hidden meaning, the objects are right there in front of you, So, what are you looking for?

What does it mean when the abstraction or the emotion is taken out of a work? What are you left with? These are the things that cross my mind. I encourage you to remove any and all ego when looking at his work, then maybe you can find comfort in the quiet.