The first impression of Peter Daniels' work is of a powerful, immediate and intuitive view of the world. The astonishing and uncompromising use of colour assaults the senses and draws the viewer into an unexpected partnership that seems to involve us in the whole creative process.
Apparently casual clues interjecting the work invite us to create our own images in a continuous re-interpretation of what we see. Some of the work is certainly challenging but it is so in an extraordinarily subtle way - if we came across a vibrantly Blue tree in our garden we would possibly be in a state of shock, but within his own work Daniels somehow manages to persuade us not to even question its 'Blueness' but instead to be completely involved with the holistic quality of the image.
Born and raised in Salford near Manchester, although his family come from Swansea in Wales, Daniels attended Manchester College of Art at the time of the ascendancy of indecipherable abstract Art. Unable, or unwilling, to engage with what his tutors were trying to teach him he was then, as Daniels himself euphemistically puts it, 'invited to leave'.
The following three years however were the ones that shaped his Artistic future. "The environment in which I worked was, as far as I know, unique - I had never heard of anything similar before or since. It was the 'Design School' of the now defunct Calico Printers Association and for three years I drew and painted flowers and plants. I was supposed to be there for six months but I think they forgot about me. Unlike college where one could come and go largely as one pleased, in this place I had to work hard from 9.00 to 5.30 every day and that work was executed within a creative discipline that no college could ever emulate.
This was where I really learned to draw, to observe and to handle colour". A career in advertising then followed and for 15 years Daniels lived and worked in London painting only in his spare time. But the pull of painting, his real love, proved ultimately irresistible and at the peak of a highly successful career gave up everything and turned to painting full time.
Collectors from Japan, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Venezuela, Germany, France, Spain, Chile, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland and Saudi Arabia as well as all over the U.K., both private individuals and International companies. Peter Daniels exhited widley in the U.K. and overseas, venuesincludeding New York, London, Valencia, Los Angeles and Bath amongst many others. In May 1994 the prestigious magazine Ideal Homes bought one of Peter Daniels paintings and used it on the cover of their publication - the first time for over 60 years that they had used a anything other than a photograph!
Critical acclaim too has been fulsome - "The best, and these are the works of real quality, are his Pembrokeshire series; paintings impressionistic and luminous, rich, green and golden"(Arts review). "One of the most exiting painters working in Wales today" (Western Mail).
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