Meet the Artist - Anthony Pieters

Arena Album by Anthony Pieters

Layers of texture, art and colour tell the story of our landscape.

Browse the collection we have available exclusively to purchase from Barnaby Lane

Meet the artist - ANTHONY PIETERS

You are both a visual and performing artist. Which one do you spend most of your time doing?

At this point of time, I have been focusing on painting due to a change of lifestyle.   Even though I enjoy creating art in front of a live audience, events are seasonal and requires a lot of networking to promote an unusual style of performing. So during the quiet seasons, I pick up the paintbrush and create artworks. However, I have decided to become consistent and fortunately I am starting to see more of an interest from art lovers, which has been very encouraging.    Also, my wife and I are expecting our first child. As a husband and father, I feel it is important for me in this next season, to create opportunities to work from home, rather than travel place to place to work. Painting is one of those revenues I wish to grow. It will be amazing to have our baby next to me while I paint!     

Tell us about your journey to become a visual artist.

When I realised as a child that the Disney movies I watched were moving artworks created by people, I developed an interest. By the time I was 7 years old, it became apparent that art was very natural to me. At the age of 12, I developed my skills through private art classes by our neighbour up the street. I continued till I was 16 years old.  Inevitably, responsibility took over after graduating from high school and I wasn’t creating art as much. Since my mid 20’s, it has been a steady progression to get into the habit of painting consistently, balanced with my part time job as a graphic designer. During the process, I have been experimenting with different styles and techniques that go beyond my approach of realism and portraiture. Fortunately, now at 32, I believe I have formed a style that is recognisable.  My biggest journey has been trying to work out how I can make a living through creating art. I believe most artists want to only focus on creating. Yet the reality is, to make a living from it, you have to focus on building a business and awareness for your art. That part has been a struggle for me but I have come to accept that this is part of the process and has shaped my work tremendously. When I experience the rare wins, like having my work featured by Barnaby Lane, it encourages me to keep going.      

Your work has traditionally focused on people. What inspired you for this collection, focused on Australian landscapes?

As much as I love portraiture, I felt it was important for me to expand my style. I started researching abstract and contemporary art and why there appeared to be a large appeal amongst art buyers, compared to realism. I created ‘Artem Patet’ to separate my contemporary work from my portrait pieces.    Through this period, I discovered textured art. It was quite popular in Europe, so I decided to give it go and see how I could create artworks that would be relevant for Australia. I researched images of water, sand and rock formations and developed techniques that would imitate these natural patterns.      

What does Artem Patet mean?

It’s quite humorous to me… ‘Artem Patet’ loosely translates to ‘plain art’ in Latin. I’m sorry to say, it was a personal joke to me, because that’s how felt about abstract and contemporary art at the time. The main goal was to see if this style of artwork would be more appealing than my portraiture work.    I later discovered that both styles ended up doing well.  I decided if I was going to do contemporary art, I was going to do something that would be interesting to me. Artem Patet is a collection of textured artworks inspired by areal views of the Australian landscape and takes on a different meaning now. The art can be understated, especially when I use neutral tones and that’s not necessarily boring or reductive. I believe because of the textures in the art, it makes it more exciting.      

Your pieces have a strong textural element. What mediums do you work with to achieve this?

Thanks to my art supplier, they recommended a paste that is like plaster to achieve the look I was after. I combined acrylic paint and sometimes sand to make it thicker to achieve greater height within the textures. I use different pallet knifes to create the textured patterns.    

Which artwork is your personal favourite and why?

 From the Artem Patet collection, I recently created my biggest piece ever as a commission for a property on the Gold Coast named Dahlia Estate. That’s become my favourite so far because of the scale and the colours. It reminds me of a mountain scape, which so happens to respond really well with the view from the owner’s space. It was so tempting to keep!      

Tell us a bit about your live performances?    

I create large scale black and white pen drawings, accompanied by music and video projection while dancing. These performances are high energy and quite the contrast in terms of style and vibe from my art. The drawings are portraits but very rough, as I draw each stroke with the music.    Depending on the event or venue, I either keep the performances entertaining or they are conceptual and delve into themes that are thought provoking for the audience.    I truly enjoy performing and giving people a new experience. I love including the audience in the process of the art and make it entertaining for them.    

What would be your dream art project?   

To create an exhibition that combines my fine art pieces with my live art performances. I want it to be an experience where the concept is consistent throughout all the artworks and the performance offers more detail and context. Multimedia and dancers will also play a big role in the project too.     

What is next for Anthony? What are you working on?   

I currently am developing a collection of portraits that now incorporate the techniques I use for the textured painting from Artem Patet. I’ve completed one and I really believe I am on to something for this. I haven’t seen anything like it so far and I’m looking forward to seeing the response once they are released. 

Art is such a personal expression of ourselves, how we view the world and how we connect in different environments. We felt intuitively connected to Anthony’s collection and are excited to have three of his original artworks available for purchase.