Biography

William Peers was born in 1965 and studied at Falmouth Art College after which he was apprenticed to a stone-carver from 1989-1991. His earliest carvings were figurative and followed that long history of English stone carving brought to prominence in the 20th Century by Henry Moore and Eric Gill. Gradually Peers’s work became more and more abstract.

Many of his carvings hang on the wall, rather than being free-standing. This lends a greater emphasis to the surface of the stone and to the delicate chisel-work than to the overall shape. Many of the sculptures are hand-carved, their surface accentuated by the tiny rhythmic patterns of the chisel and the occasional holes and slender rivulets that puncture the stone. Peers's carvings have as much affinity with painting as sculpture. The work lies somewhere between the two, with as much in common with abstract painters, Paul Klee and Barnet Newman as with Moore and Gill. Peers lives and works in North Cornwall.
By John Martin: Director, John Martin of London