Peter Kettle offers his "fictional realism" in Lewes

He describes the show as “Peter Kettle assisted by William Shakespeare, Herman Hesse, Clive James, John Banville, Maggie Smith, Salley Vickers, Goethe, Wittgenstein, Terry Pratchett, A S Byatt, Ted Hughes, Cormac McCarthy, John Keats, John Clare, Robert Hooke, James Joyce and, of course, Mister Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker… and others.

“I am not interested in copying or working from photographs. I am mostly stimulated by words. A quote from Shakespeare, line of poetry from Ted Hughes or a phrase from Bob Dylan, and I’m off. What happens then is a meditative search for the metaphor inside an idea. I hope my show will amuse and stimulate the viewer into looking for references to writers and musicians and scientists; and to philosophers, especially the ones who are not afraid to challenge the current dogmas. I try hard to do this with my paintings.

“When Clive James described me as a fictional realist, he added: ‘Pete is the world’s first fictional realist… He doesn't copy these wonderful paintings; he invents them, based on his memories of a place or on his meditations about a subject. He never uses photographs, and admits getting bored if he copies what everyone else can see. What he does do is read. Whether it’s poetry, fiction or fact he finds ideas bounce off of the pages. That’s what makes him fictional.”

Peter added: “I spent most of my art school years rebelling against the orthodoxies we were taught. As an independent I felt free to follow my own path rather than conform to the current trend; I’m still doing it, and concentrating on the superb medium of the high pigment Giclee process. It is allowing the painter to rationalise the cost of what sometimes continues to evolve for twenty years.

"Yes, I have several paintings that have taken that long to complete. The original paintings are inherently expensive, but a superb Giclee on specially made paper allows prices to be more democratic.

"Enough said.”