Peter Crabtree
Peter Crabtree (1930 -) was born in Morecambe and was brought up in West Riding in Yorkshire. He attended Leeds College of Art and then the Royal College of Art where he studied under John Minton, Carel Weight and Ruskin Spear. While at the RCA he won an Abbey Minor scholarship, which enabled him to paint in the South of France, Paris and Rome for a year.
Peter had solo exhibitions first with the Crane Gallery in Manchester and subsequently with Crane Kalman in London in 1960. He exhibited with Lowry, Lowndes, Fell, Bradsaw and Bryan Senior in 1961 in the seminal ‘Mood of the North’ exhibition at the Brompton Road Gallery, receiving excellent critical acclaim. He went on to teach at Liverpool College of Art in the 1960’s and beyond, where he taught Jake Attree amongst others.
He has produced some stunning works and is held in high esteem by his peers. He is clearly influenced by Munch and other Symbolists, Cezanne, Impressionism, and Fauvism, and deploying a unique treatment of colour, both his still life work and landscapes carry a vibrancy and poignancy that establish a singular and distinctive style. He is included and illustrated in ‘A Northern School Revisited’ by Peter Davies.
