Description
Glasgow Paintings is a beautifully produced large‑format hardback celebrating a major new body of work by renowned plein‑air painter Peter Brown – also known as Pete the Street.
Painted entirely on location, never from photographs, this collection captures Glasgow with a vitality and immediacy shaped by working outdoors in all lights and weather, with the city moving around him.Peter’s love affair with the city began in the summer of 2023, when he visited Banksy’s Cut & Run exhibition at the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art – which featured five of his own paintings.
As Banksy himself put it: “I’m a bit fascinated by Pete the Street – he paints what you can’t see, as much as what you can. I know he’s just applying paint to a bit of board, so how come his pictures tell you the temperature, the moisture, the smell? How the hell does he do that?”
What began as a spark of curiosity soon had Peter heading back up the M6 again and again, building a wide‑ranging portrait of the city one painting at a time. He started with the grand sweep of the city centre and Merchant City, drawn to the drama of the architecture and the shifting light on stone. From there he climbed into Blythswood and Garnethill, crossed the Clyde into the West End, wandered through the Gorbals and Govanhill, followed the river, and worked his way into the everyday neighbourhoods where the real rhythms of the city play out. He completed his journey in the East End, painting the Cathedral, the Necropolis and the beloved Barrowlands.
Rain, bright spells, cold snaps, long summer evenings – Peter painted in everything Glasgow threw at him. The result is a vivid, characterful portrait of a city that is elegant and industrial, bold and intimate, and always alive with movement and atmosphere.
Glasgow Paintings stands alongside Peter’s acclaimed books on London, Bath and Bristol, and will coincide with a solo exhibition in the city.
