Two Yorkshire artists who met 60 years ago at college are reunited in a new exhibition

Now, ‘Together and Apart’ brings together Peter Hicks’ paintings and Peter Hough’s ceramics as they continue to evolve with the pair now in their eighties.

“It’s a fascinating exhibition,” explains Museum Director Jennifer Smith.

“Their artwork clearly reflects their own unique styles – Peter Hicks’ evocative and abstracted landscapes responding to the region of the National Park, and Peter Hough’s beautiful ceramics often showing the resonant influence of the sea through the shapes, textures and colour palettes.

“And yet, visitors will also be able to see the way the men have responded to each other. It’s been very exciting to see the ways their artwork seems to fit together.”

Across the exhibition, you can also read their thoughts about the impact of those early years and the way their art has responded to time and friendship.

The friends clearly value each other’s opinions.

“Showing work with a friend is a lovely experience – showing alongside people you care about,” explains Hicks. I’m always so impressed by Peter’s work, the combination of natural earth colours: siennas, ochres, umbres and ghostly hues. His fossil forms echo what he sees within his coastal experience, intriguing because, like so much of Peter’s work, they imitate nature with such apparent ease.”

Hough recalls his days at art college. “In many ways we were very typical of art students and tended to gather together. There were definitely more girls on the course than boys and studying art must have seemed a funny choice for us in some ways, instead of getting a job.”

Hough says he was destined to be an artist,

“ I was always drawing and painting as a child. I always liked to respond to surface and the three-dimensional side of the course appealed to me. My parents were very supportive of my choice and very responsive to my interests.”

Hicks on the other hand says he wasn't a natural artist.

“I wouldn’t say that I was born with a gift for painting. It was something I had to work at,” he says. “When I was a child, although I don’t really feel I had an aptitude for art, I did look, I did see.

“I was on the landing at home and I heard my parents talking. My mum said, ‘What are we going to do with him? Has he got any talents?’ And I heard my dad reply, ‘When he gets anxious he gets his paints out… Perhaps he could study art.’

“When I went to a life class, I would stand further back so I could see what the others were doing, looking at the work of the people to the left and the right of me. I had to learn my craft.”

But learn he did and he has had many successes, although it wasn’t always easy.

“I’ve had shows in Mayfair now, am well known, have work in private collections, but I started with very low beginnings and got there by studying nature, by observing and working at my art,” says Hicks

“While I was at art school, I began to get an early feeling for what I wanted to express. Fundamental to every artist is a desire to find creative roots, what it is that underpins your practice, gives you a focus, a direction.

“For me, in the end, my roots are in a sense of Englishness. I’m influenced by the English landscape, by the works of Thomas Girtin, JMW Turner, David Cox, John Robert Cozens - all watercolourists.

“My own paintings respond to the landscapes of Yorkshire that I grew up with, that as a kid I played around in. They provided me with the foundation for what would be my life’s work. Whenever I paint a hillside, I embed my paintings with all that matters to me.

“Normally I work on a very large scale, sometimes producing work up to eight feet across. But the tiny pieces here are created in response to Peter Hough’s beautiful jewel-like ceramics. They inspired me to create small works of my own.”

Although Hicks and Hough had been good friends at college they went their separate ways until they met again years later.

“Peter and I met by chance many years after our college days were behind us,” recalls Hicks.

“I noticed the name Peter Hough, listed as showing ceramics in Danby. I wondered, could it be him? So I breezed down to the gallery, and there he was. I was so excited, quite amazed. I had no idea what he’d been up to.”

And his friend is equally as complementary about his work.

“I feel a strong response to Peter’s paintings, especially in his approach to landscape. I see elements in my own work, which spurs me on.

“My work is often based on erosion-formed pebbles and renders homage to the rich heritage of our fossil coast. But I’ll respond to whatever appeals to me, although at its heart it is surface really. I’m fascinated by surface. I just get the urge to explore something and enjoy it!

“When I trained we were very much learning to make functional pieces, hand-thrown pottery. We were exposed to studio pottery, English ceramics from the thirties, forties and fifties. But now ceramics is more than dinnerware. It’s more than just functional. There’s more abstraction.”

The exhibition is also a nice opportunity to purchase art at affordable prices. As well as larger pieces, there are a number of smaller-scale works, with original ceramics starting at £16 and original paintings from £85.

The exhibition runs until November 13.

www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/

Open Saturday to Thursday, 10am – 5pm in September and 10am – 4pm in October and November. Closed on Fridays.