Vibrant works by artist Peter Kingston go on display, capturing the North Shore
The State Library is currently staging a tribute to iconic Sydney artist and Lavender Bay resident, the late Peter Kingston, featuring 70 of his original artworks.
Peter Kingston, The Exhibition, provides an intimate glimpse into the creative life of the prolific artist best known for his vibrant and joyful depictions of Sydney, its harbour, Luna Park and the Opera House. The library has collected his art for over 40 years.
Library co-curators Elise Edmonds and Mathilde de Hauteclocque wanted to provide a more personal look at the artist whose work ‘brought so much colour, wry humour and nostalgia to the everyday aspects of our city’.
Elise said the library had been working with Peter, who painted from his Lavender Bay home studio for 50 years, since 1984. The idea for the exhibition came after Peter passed away in 2022, aged 79.
“We worked with his sister Fairlie Kingston,” says Elise. “She allowed photographers to visit his house, also his studio, at Lavender Bay. We took photographs to document his house, and it grew from there – the idea that we should have a celebratory exhibition showcasing what the library holds of Peter’s work.”
Peter’s larger oil paintings are in art galleries, but the library has a beautiful collection of his artist books, including one called Shark Net Seahorses of Balmoral (2012), an art and poetry collaboration between Peter and poet Robert Adamson.
“It’s a lovely story about Robert, who grew up on the north side of the harbour, and Peter, who grew up at Parsley Bay on the south,” says Elise. “They had this idea about the shark net at the beach and how on one side there’s a groper, and on the other there are seahorses.”
The exhibition includes many hand-coloured etchings from the 1980s depicting Sydney scenes, which Elise says are ‘lovely celebrations of Sydney life and Sydney-siders’.
“He really focused on what was out of his window,” Elisa says. “There’s Luna Park on one side, the Harbour Bridge and then the Opera House on the other. These icons right in front of him informed a lot of his work.”
Elise says Peter loved old historic places, particularly Coney Island at Luna Park. He actually worked at Luna Park in the 1970s.
“There was a whole group of (artists) who painted and restored a lot of the old original rides – all pre the 1979 fire,” says Elise. “(Peter) formed Friends of Luna Park in the nineties and was behind a lot of movements to preserve parts of old Sydney. And also the ferries; he loved the old Lady class ferries.”
Peter’s dogs were also incorporated into a lot of his work. One of the artist’s books on display is called Foxy Tails, which features Sweetie, a fox terrier he had in the 1980s. His Scottish terrier, Denton, also appeared in his art.
Also on exhibit are Peter’s A-Z Alphabet book of Phobias (c. 1989), which helped cure his agoraphobia, and the visitor’s book from Lavender Bay in the late 1970s, containing recipes, notes and sketches of his friends, such as artist Brett Whitely.
Peter’s ‘spirited voice’ can also be heard in excerpts from a 2018 oral history interview.
Visitors to the exhibition can pre-book a curator-led tour on 6 and 20 August. Entry is free.
PETER KINGSTON, THE EXHIBITION
On now until May 2025
Open every day
State Library of NSW – 1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney
Visit: sl.nsw.gov.au
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