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 The Chalk Giants
By :
Deborah Susan Jones :
Editor
Completed
on 27th October 1974, just a few months after the artist had graduated
from St. Martins School of Art, this painting is of classic 1970s
origin and an early delve into what was to become Peter's classic
technique - that of "Acryloil". It was done on canvas board, a
side-step from his then usual method of painting on stretched paper, to
be the cover artwork of Keith Roberts collection of stories titled "The
Chalk Giants".
Steve
Abis, art director of Panther Books, then a well known publisher in the
UK (and Commonwealth Countries) of Science Fiction books, commissioned
the work. Peter was then living in the lower end of the Fulham Road in
South West London and the picture is a product of The Fulham Road
Studio, which was to become famous in the industry and saw many an
equally famous visitor, from Ian Ballantine of Bantam Books and
publisher of Frank Frazetta's books, to producers and art directors of
such projects as The War of the Worlds (album) and The Perry Rhodan
series of books and so much more . . . .
This
painting was one of the root explorations and experimentations that
developed what became one of Peter's key strengths sought after by the
world's publishers, that of characterisation and imagined stages, on
which the characters appeared, and many a character, products of a
fertile imagination, were rooted in "The Fulham Years".
As
the studio became more and more successful, driven by phenomenal
worldwide demand for these images from clients, it moved to Wimbledon
in South London and expanded to be the size of a whole house, and even
then, the rooms were "knee deep" in originals, to the extent that the
company that Peter had formed, Solar Wind Limited, had to, of
necessity, form a gallery division to sell at least some of the works,
if only to free-up floor (and overhead racks!) space.
The
"house" became a giant two dimentional menagerie for fantastical beast
and creatures on every landing, hallway, and staircase - grotesque
monsters, fabulous birds, dragons, snakes, and all manner of "things"
based on ignorance and superstition and gripped and harnessed by
Peter's stunning imagination, they represent and symbolise every human
emotion and attribute, ludicrous and wonderful. They became symbols,
too, of the mysteries and stunning powers of nature. Humans became and
become obsessed by "things" they cannot understand or explain, and "The
Wimbledon Studio" fully developed and extrapolated "man, myth, and
magic" imagery to the full.
Fabulous
monsters, or exotic birds, creatures of water, air, wind and fire -
darkness (especially darkness . . . ) and light; keepers of wisdom,
Lords of The Cosmos over eons - mythical beasts are rooted deep in our
cultural ancestry. Born out of ignorance and gripped by that same
superstition and a fearful imagination, inhabitants of fable and
fairytale, they represent the archetypes and symbols of the torment and
loneliness, turmoil and violence of human emotion. They are the
mysteries of the human soul, symbols of the awesome power of lightning
and tsunami and all human emotions both hideous and wonderful, made
manifest and given physical expression in a two-dimensional icon.
The Artist has explored all these fantasies and nightmares, not least of all in this painting, to spine-chilling effect.
They have a place in the history of Art.
In
what then became "The Church Stretton Studio years" the studio still
generates images of myth and legend, and while perhaps more
sophisticated and subtle in their references and implications all are
rooted "in the 70s studio years" at The Fulham Studio, providing a past
and future abundance of inspiration for painters, illustrators,
story-tellers and even song writers and students of the history of art
and especially the history of science fiction and fantasy art in which
Peter Andrew Jones has played such a significant and influential part,
as in this image here.
Equally,
Keith Roberts was a Science Fiction author of note and the Chalk
Giants, a future fantasy, described a lead character, Stanley Potts,
obsessively attempting to escape and avoid a post nuclear world,
written at a time when the cold war, we were told, could "make that so"
so easily and swiftly, and the artist's chosen scene is designed to
thrust at you the chilling view of how such a world might easily
descend into primitive tendencies and behaviours "after the bomb".
Deborah Susan Jones
About "Artist"
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