Peter Otton will showcase picturesque paintings and sketches of ex-students at upcoming exibit

While preparing for his first solo exhibition at the Spiral Gallery in Bega, Peter rediscovered sketches and drawings he had done of past students, dating back to 2008 during his time as an Art teacher.

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With the dilemma of whether or not to include the portraits, Peter decided that the portraits didn't belong in his drawers and that in order to show the full breadth of his work they would get the go ahead.

"I sort of thought, what am I going to do with these drawings? Just sitting in my draws in a studio just doesn't make sense, they should go out.

"In reality I think well they should actually go back to the families of the people in them," Peter said.

The exhibition will open on Friday, January 20 and run until February 8, with a morning tea and 'meet the artist' at 11am, February 4.

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The works drawn in lead pencil are stark and quite unique, and feature students Peter taught art and portraiture to.

As the years passed Peter lost contact with a lot of the students, and has had his work cut out putting names to the faces he once sketched in such detail some 15 years ago.

While he remembered a few, some students featured were a question mark to Peter - deciding to include them in the exhibit in the hope that the subjects may be reunited with the works.

"I don't actually know the surnames of two of them, I'll have to speak with other teachers and see if they can remember who these kids are.

"Most of them I've given to the kids themselves, and I've kept a photocopy but these ones are the original drawings."

While Peter has been included in many exhibitions throughout the years, including three others at Bega's Spiral Gallery, this is his first solo show and one that he has been working towards for quite some time.

After doing some portrait commission work in the past, Peter has since been more drawn to painting land and seascapes, a style he has found less prone to critique.

"To capture the likeness of someone is actually quite tricky. There's a psychology about how people view themselves.

"When you draw somebody, if you're being very accurate you capture every nuance, every fault and people are not used to seeing themselves that harshly," he said.

All the works will be for sale, however the drawings are priced much cheaper than the painted landscapes.

The majority of the works will be acrylic paintings of both local spots and places around the world that had a lasting impact on Peter.

"I paint places that strike me, whenever I go travelling I take a lot of photos and I do some drawings and get one painting at each spot."

"There's no point in having a theme for the exhibit because all the works are so disparate. Some of the paintings are of this local area, like Nelson's or Tathra, but others are of Italy or Morocco and far-flung places," he said.

Some of Peter's more recent life drawings will also be on show along with the paintings and student portraits.

"The idea is to have an exhibition that shows the full breadth of my work."

While no longer teaching and painting as a hobby, Peter looks back fondly on his time teaching, despite it initially not being his intended career path.

Formally trained at Riverina College of Advanced education in Wagga Wagga, Peter wanted to pursue art after becoming engrossed in it at an early age.

"I learned to draw when I was about 12 and it had a big impact. It was a way of being included and accepted and even sometimes revered and the more I drew the more good things happened," Peter said.

"I loved teaching, the kids were good and it suited my lifestyle," he said.

Peter will exhibit eight of the portraits to go along with two still life drawings and 20 paintings.

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