kitchen (2006) Painting by Peter Walker

Peter Walker

In 1981, at the age of seventeen, Walker began his “big adventure” with the purchase of a one way ticket to Aberdeen, leaving the mass unemployment of Liverpool behind him. For a while he slept rough in Aberdeen train station until he found work as a labourer. For the next few years he worked on a number of oil rigs before buying another one way ticket, this time to London. He slept on his sister’s floor before gaining employment at a construction recruitment agency where he met his future wife. In 1987 they finally settled in Salisbury and Walker began to develop derelict or rundown properties. From modest beginnings the business grew into a success. This was perhaps due to his ability to teach himself every process of the business from scratch. Walker felt the need to understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ of each building or restoration technique as it was needed. This persistence and self reliance paid off and the business grew rapidly as he progressed into shop fitting and commercial design.
After studying at night school, to fill in the gaps from his schooldays, he began a degree in the History of Art, Architecture and Design from which he graduated in 1998. This interest had grown from watching his artist mother as she worked when he was a child and from the years spent restoring period buildings and furniture. A deep interest in classical and traditional art and design laid the foundations for his understanding and appreciation of modernist values. Walker has a special interest in multi disciplinary artists like Da Vinci and Brunelesci who are known for their work in science and mathematics as well as the visual arts. Today’s society however seems to look down upon those who are multi skilled or whose ideas cross many creative disciplines, it likes to label people and fit them into neat categories in order to understand them. Peter Walker cannot be easily labelled.
After many years developing residential and commercial properties, and with his theoretical studies behind him, Walker began developing his ideas for cutting edge bar design. His conceptual ideas were heavily influenced by his study of art history and sociology. Walker wanted to take art ideas out of the gallery environment and present them in an accessible way to everyday people. He wanted the bar to be a living, breathing and evolving work of art, where a community of artists could contribute to its evolution. During construction he encouraged the builders, electricians and plasterers to be creative and take pride in their work, and to know that their part in the process of value. In late 1999 ‘c+bscene’ opened and was a great success. Nearly all of the fittings, mirrored wall mounts and UV light boxes were designed specifically for the site and changed on a regular basis. Designers and artists came from London for inspiration and his ideas and theories were published in trade and design magazines.
Salisbury, however, was not the right place for such innovat...

• Nationality: UNITED KINGDOM
• Date of birth : 1964
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary British Artists