The Playful Essentials – Sculpture and Drawing by Peter D Cole

One of the most overused quotes is this one by Pablo Picasso, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Through my research I’ve heard of such artists as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky studying the work of children’s drawings. In fact, at the age of 23 Paul Klee discovered drawings from his early youth at his childhood home and rated them to be among the most significant that he had ever done – “highly stylish and naive”.

Highly stylish and naive is a good way of summarising these fantastic sculptures and drawings by Australian Artist Peter Cole. This ‘child’s view’ has been seen in many artist’s work over the years, one that comes to mind when looking at Peter’s work is Alexander Calder. Alexander was a real genius at channeling this inner child, playing and experimenting with a mixture of materials to create unique sculptures and mobiles.

Peter uses all of these to good effect, creating drawing and sculpture that’s expressive and exciting. Interestingly he’s breaking all the rules when it comes to form, straight line meets sharp-edged forms, there’s also open and closed forms, even simple forms become striking using this method. His work here has been photographed on a white background, which doesn’t really show them in a natural setting, but in an architectural environment these offer a fantastic parallel between contemporary “grown-up” work and something more playful. A place that shows this in particular is his own home and studio in Kyneton, a town in Victoria, Australia. This place has a distinctive colour palette and minimalist lines, some might say an extension of his own work, you should certainly check it out! Enjoy.

peterdcole.com.au

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