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30 Fore Street, Langtree, Torrington, Devon, EX38 8NG

tel : 01805 601432
email : peterstiles2013@icloud.com

b 1959

Slade School of Fine Art 1977 – 80

Mixed shows include: A Generous Space 3, Huddersfield Art Gallery 2023 Changing Atmospheres (with Trish Morrissey, Lucy Soni, Matt Stokes), Hestercombe 2022, BEEP ( (biennial exhibition of painting) 2022, Swansea, Insiders and Incomers, Bobinska Brownlee 2022, Summer Open, StudioKIND 2023 , Wells Contemporary 2020, South West Academy Open 2022, Sidmouth, Weird, Wild and Wonderful, North Devon Museums, Autumn Exhibitions and other mixed shows, Royal West of England, Jerwood Drawing Prize, Touring Show etc

Selected recent one man shows

2024 Ruskin Mill, Stroud

2022 and 2021 Studio Kind, Braunton

2021 Castle Bude

2018 Devonport Guildhall, Plymouth 

2018 The Plough Arts Centre

2017 Castle, Bude

2016 and 2015  Walcot Chapel, Bath

2014 Greenhill Arts, Moretonhampstead

2014 Site Festival, Stroud

2014 Black Swan Arts,Frome

2014 Welcombe Hall, North Devon

2014 Plough Arts, Torrington, North Devon “One and Many”

2011 Plymouth Arts Centre

2011 Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery

2010 Station, Bristol

2010 Torquay Museum

2009 Museum of North Devon “Vivarium”

2009 Coldharbour, Uffcolme “Vivarium”

2009 Plough Arts Centre, Torrington

2008 Gloucestershire University “Fisherman’s Rock”

2007 Brewhouse, Taunton “liberte, fraternite, egalite”

2006 British Academy, London “Science and Romanticism”

2006 Exeter University

2005 Praxis, Bideford “Charms against the Powerful”

2005 Swimbridge (Artsculture)

2005 Beaford Arts

2005 Abbey Arts, London

2005 Station/Golden Guinea, Bristol

2002 Barnstaple + Torrington “Allegory of Love”

2000 Plymouth Arts Centre

1999 Bartley Drew Gallery, London

1998 Dartington Hall, Dartington

Projects

2023 – commissioned artist for The Wild Escape project working with Combe Martin, Lynton and Parracombe schools and Combe Martin and Lyn and Exmoor Museum to produce work giving a voice to Nature.

2020 – present – working with SPAEDA and the Quantock Landscape partnership on a series of workshops exploring the legacy of Coeridge and Wordsworth – both outdoors and at Taunton Museum

2017 – present Gallery Director (0.6) at The Plough Arts Centre. Achieved NPO status 2023. 20+ shows per year in 3 spaces including mixed curated shows, outreach projects, workshops, talks and continuous programme of artist’s films on a monitor in the mezzanine. See https://www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions. NPO status has allowed me to show more recent graduates including Laura Porter, George Raynor, Samuel Bestwick, Olivia Brelsford-Massey, Kes Wilkie, Ross Sanders, Charlie Ash, Madeline Rolt, Erika Cann, Millie Laing-Tate and Laura Robertson. Other recent  shows include Still Moving, Janet Sainsbury, Bill Stewart, Mahali O’Hare, Stuart, Edmundson and the witchcraft tapestries of Anne Jackson.  Forthcoming shows include a collaboration with Contemporary British Painting in July and a protest show in February. Other shows have included: Richard Cook, Petra Freeman, Andrea Maclean, Joff Winterhart, Joy Wolfenden Brown, Radical Landscapes: A show of language artists curated by Camilla Nelson including Hanna Tuulikki, Richard Skelton, Lawrence Upton, Alec Finlay, Judith Tucker & Harriet Tarlo and “Four Hugs Wide” a project by Harry Borden and Mireille Thornton which was part of a wider festival I organised around woodlands. 

In my role as fundraiser for the Plough I have raised £750k + from multiple sources including Arts Council, Community Lottery, Garfield Weston and Culture Recovery Fund – and also played a key role in putting together the succesful NPO application to Arts Council England (£360k over 3 years).

2015 – present  Formed the Art Writers Group with Jo Lanyon and Grace Davies.  Partnerships with Arnolfini, Spike Island, Tate St Ives, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, CAST (Cornelian Arts and Science Trust), Plymouth Culture, Made in Plymouth, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth City Council, Hestercombe and Visual Art South West in order to put together a programme of events that  launched in December 2016. (www.artwritersgroup.co.uk)

2016 – Raised funds to put on a series of events with Wolf and Water arts company celebrating the life and work of the Rev Keble Martin in 2017.

2011 – Artist in residence at Plymouth Museum.

2009 – New Expressions (www.newexpressions.org) Initiated and devised the Vivarium project which focused on the work of George Eliot and Victorian Marine biology in North Devon. The project included a publication (available from North Devon Museums – ISBN-13 978-0-95503 16-6-3), a film night, talks, workshops and a touring exhibition which included paintings, the W.S. Hore collection of pressed seaweed, drawings by Philip Gosse and an aquarium of local marine life.

2007 –  Initiated, devised and managed The Samuel Taylor Coleridge festival with Tim Martin at the Brewhouse.  I raised £18k  from the Heritage Lottery. The festival included a music project based on the Aeolian Harp with students from Chilton Trinity Technical College and Lydiard St Lawrence primary with a live performance of original music  incorporating film and still imagery, a lecture and reading of Coleridge’s anti slavery sermon in the Unitarian Chapel where it was originally delivered, a geology project, a performance of Christabel by Adults with Learning difficulties, 3 exhibitions (including  solo show + catalogue), a series of guided walks, a film by Wolf and Water based on The Ancient Mariner and a collaborative project with the Arnolfini.

Commissions include

2008 “Vivarium” for North Devon Museums
2006 Drawings for Radioplay, BAC, Edinburgh
2005 Bookwork for Bristol Art Library
2003 Set Design for “Water Babies”
2002 Paintings for “Allegory of Love”
1998 Banner for Appledore Shipbuilders Trade Union
1988 Exterior Banners for The Plough Arts Centre

Employment (Part-time)

2017 – Gallery Director (0.6) at The Plough Arts Centre + fundraising

2016 – Co-managing Arts Writing Programme (www.artwritersgroup.co.uk)/Co-managing Keble Martin Project

2013 – 2015 – Formed the Art Writing Group  in 2015 with co-directors Jo Lanyon and Grace Davies.
Member of Visual Arts South West steering group. Assisted with writing a successful G4A and co-organised a residential writing course for artists and curators at the Arvon Foundation.
Board member (Vice Chair) of Wolf and Water Arts Company, an arts company that uses theatre and the arts creatively and therapeutically within the mental health, criminal justice, conflict resolution, social, youth and education services. Bought in to restructure the company. Task accomplished and handover to new board completed.
Teaching at Dartmoor Arts Summer School.
Mentor for New Expressions – a scheme which places artists in museums (www.newexpressions.org)
2012 – Temporary administrator/director for ALIAS (www.aliasarts.org) Evaluation of previous projects, submission of final report, successful new G4A written and new administrator appointed.
Consultant/temporary director for a new gallery – Greenhill Arts, Moretonhampstead. Assisted with writing a successful G4A and created templates for future activity including marketing and audience development.
Member of Visual Arts South West Steering Group
Mentor for New Expressions
2011- Associate artist, Plymouth Museum – funded by PVAC (Plymouth Visual Arts Consortium)
Project Manager for a series of PVAC shows at Plymouth Arts Centre during BAS 7 – 8 artists/8 organisations working in diverse settings.
Lecturing – Cardiff School of Art
Artist’s representative on Turning Point South West group – co-organised TPSW conference at Brewhouse.
2010 – Associate artist, Plymouth Museum .
Artist’s representative on Turning Point South West group – co-wrote a successful G4A2003 – 2010
2003 – 2010 – Visual Arts Officer, Arts Council South West (0.6)
Officer for individual artist’s development, workspace development, visual arts in Bristol and Gloucestershire and for organisations and schemes including: ALIAS (a regional scheme developing artist’s groups with an annual budget of £70k), South West Open Studios, Spike Island (including leading on the successful £2.25 million capital development project), Stroud Valley’s Artspace (including leading on the successful £1.35 million capital development project capital development), Gloucestershire Cathedral residency, Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust.

2000 – 2003
Visual Arts Officer, South West Arts (0.6)
Officer for visual arts development in Somerset and Gloucestershire, capital development of Spike Island, Stroud Valley’s Artspace, The Brewery, Gloucester Docks and visual arts awards.

1998 – present
Associate artist with Wolf and Water, an arts company that uses theatre and the arts creatively and therapeutically within the mental health, criminal justice, conflict resolution, social, youth and education services. Work includes residential projects with Treliske, Derriford and Wonford Hospital Child Oncology Departments, film and performance with adults with learning disabilities. For further details see (www.wolfandwater.org)

1997 – 2000
Writer for “Artists and Illustrators” magazine – articles included interviews with established artists (Euan Uglow, Gillian Ayres etc), historical essays (inc. William Blake), features on my own practice, reviews and technical advice.

1994 – 2000
Visual Arts Officer. (0.6) The Beaford Centre: a rural arts centre which at the time incorporated the in Torrington. Duties included the day to day running of two galleries and initiating/managing and raising funds for community and education projects.

1992 – 1994
Small School Hartland teaching GCSE art and undertaking project work. (0.2)

1980 – 1994
Labouring – farming, gardening and building work in rural North Devon.