Peter Powditch New Work
1 August, 2008 - 27 August, 2008

 “… call me modern, if you want. I like art that goes to sleep when you turn the light off and doesn’t keep blazing all night…” Peter Powditch

 In August 2008 Peter Powditch presents a group of New Work at the Ray Hughes Gallery. The landscape of the Byron Bay hinterland, where he lives, dominates many of the panels in the exhibition with the same veiled though highly charged sensuality of his style. Alongside these beachscapes are a series of small wooden and found object constructions, which reflect those in life, around him; from beach houses assembled ad hoc, to the ubiquitous packet of hot chips found at every fish shop on the Australian coast. The exhibition runs from 1 – 27 of August.

“His paintings and sculptures have always been about improvisation and finding things and putting them together to make an image. The works often hark back to the home renovated beach house – his life has been punctuated by family Christmas holidays at Crowdy Head; with sun, pink flesh, sand and the sea.”RH

The first time my father saw the work of Peter Powditch was in 1966 on the pages of Chance magazine, which was the Australian attempt at Playboy of the time. He visited Peter’s studio on his first trip to Sydney and had four of his paintings in his fourth ever exhibition in Brisbane. Peter was seen as the brightest young artist in Sydney and all the daring collectors of the time had Peter Powditches in their homes. In the early 1970s he was one of the younger artists taken up by the Rudy Komon gallery, along with Baldessin, Senbergs and Ron Robertson Swan. He was encouraged and admired by Rudy and the senior artists like Fred Williams.

His paintings are some of the most striking in our collection and “Showgirl” is one of the earliest images I can remember from our house. It is with great pleasure that we present ten works by Peter Powditch from our collection to accompany his new exhibition. Evan and Ray Hughes, August 1 2008