PEASCOD, WILLIAM (1920-1985)

"Scar II" (1968)
oil on board
cm
signed lower right
*finalist in the Mirror-Waratah Art Competition
*exhibited in the Survey 5 Exhibition at Blaxland Gallery in August 1965
*private collection, Sydney
 
Peascod was an award-winning English Abstract Painter & Nationally renowned Climber & Mountaineer. Qualifying as a mining engineer, Bill emigrated to Australia in 1952 where he discovered another great passion and natural skill, painting. He became well known as an experimental landscape painter, even, during the 1960s, producing wonderful mixed media works with their surfaces burnt to change the appearance and nature of some of the painted areas. His early abstract-expressionistic paintings reflect his coal-mining and mountaineering experiences in England. His work is represented in the National Gallery Of Victoria, Art Gallery Of NSW & the University of Queensland collections. His works appear regularly in publications of modern abstract painters in Australia. Despite his success in Australia, including exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Bill longed for his native Cumbria, and returned to the UK in 1980. Here he continued to paint, inspired by the fells he’d got to know before leaving 28 years earlier. Sadly, Bill died of a heart attack whilst climbing in Wales in 1985. His legacies are many and varied, but none less than the wonderful and unique works he produced in paint. 
 
This impressive work, depicting the landscape around Peascod's beloved Lake District, Cumbria (UK), was a finalist in the Mirror-Waratah Art Competition, and was exhibited in the Survey 5 Exhibition at Blaxland Gallery in August 1965. "Scar VII" was purchased by the NGV in 1970 & "Scar XI" was purchased by the AGNSW in 1965.