Biography
Peter Chatwin (b. Birmingham, UK 1945 - d. 2018) studied at Birmingham College of Art and Design. With Pamela Martin (b. 1949-) he established a workshop in Leicestershire in 1981 making intricately constructed dyed wood laminate pieces as jewellery, bowls, platters, vessels and boxes. Recent exhibitions included 2016 - Every Last Mouthful, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester (2016); PARTY ON! Nature in Art, Gloucester (solo/touring); The Minories Galleries, Colchester ( 2011/13); Cross Pollination Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan ( 2008/09); The Ishikawa International Urushi Exhibition , Wajima, Japan (2005); ‘Every third mouthful…’ The Harley Gallery, Nottingham, Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Alsager Gallery, Manchester; Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Horniman Museum London ((2004/08)); Earth Moves - Six Chapel Row Contemporary Art, Bath (2004); Deep Earth Series, Gallerymateria, Scottsdale, USA (2001) and Deep Earth - The Yard Gallery, Nottingham (2000).
Chatwin and Martin developed a unique method for laminating wood to form the basic material. Thin tiles of sycamore are hand-dyed in a vast range of colours and glued together to form a layer block. The block is then cut, glued and cut again, and realigned any number of times to form intricate patterns of stripes. In other pieces the blocks are shaved carefully to expose layers of colour in a more painterly way.
