Peter McDonald

Peter McDonald was born in Tokyo in 1973.He graduated from St. Martins School of Art in London and from Royal Academy Schools in 2003. He currently lives in Tokyo and London, drawing on everyday life to create paintings that tell a collective story.

Peter McDonald paints multicoloured visions of our world featuring extravagant figures with huge balloon heads in a variety of settings, from hairdressing salons to football pitches, engaged in activities that reflect today s world of recreation and work.

The balloon heads are translucent and create magnificent colour blends by interacting with each other or even with the environment. In fact, in representing the dissolution of these boundaries, McDonald suggests a visual connection.

McDonald s reasons for painting are virtuosic in their own right. He uses his unique graphic language to depicts recognisable vignettes that highlight the joy of the human experience. He wants to make works that make people smile and feel happy; works that people can enjoy.

"I am fascinated by the way I can physically embody the idea of communication between two characters through paint. Two overlapping coloured heads, merging in the middle, feature in much of my work. The transparent effect is an illusion in many cases. I mix the merging colours to produce a see-through effect. Sometimes the heads merge with the background too, which helps to create depth in the picture plane. Visually, this also helps depict the dissolution of boundaries between people and their environment."

Peter McDonald used to loosely copy people from music magazines and newspapers and place them in an imaginary setting, until he began to develop his own style of people after putting down the photographic source material and starting to paint from memory and feeling.

Inspiration comes to him from anywhere. He often gets great ideas on the journey to his studio, from being on the bus and looking down at the street, giving him a way into some kind of vision through the senses, seeing and hearing. 

As for materials, McDonald likes to use acrylic gouache for its opaque matte finish, looking flat on the support he uses.

Peter McDonald was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize in 2008 and was commissioned by Art on the Underground to produce a large-scale public installation of Southwark, among other achievements. In 2011-12, he completed a one-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.