Brooke’s new work, oil on panel, has a finely crafted surface that incorporates indistinguishable layers of paint applied in glazes. Through layering, Brooke achieves a depth of field in the undershadows of the clouds, the sense of changing weather, the wind moving across fields of grass. The dynamics of how the land, water, and air inter-relate is the essence of his painting. Atmospheric space and luminosity of light have drawn audiences to his work, and captured their imagination, just as the landscape has captured Brooke’s keen interest for his very personal artistic investigation. An exhibition of his paintings last year in Boston was deemed one of the city’s ten best by Kate McQuaid of the Boston Globe.

Peter Brooke’s images are based on the landscapes of the Champlain Valley and the long views from the Green Mountains. His observations begin with geometric sketches of the landscape, which form the basis for a resulting group of paintings. The small discoveries of place inform his subjects: the flat marshlands merging into Lake Champlain, the distant hills of the Adirondack and Green Mountains, and the cedar swamps that feed into the valley. “It is the subtlety not the majesty of place that interests me,” he notes.

Peter Brooke continues to live and paint in northern Vermont. He shows with galleries in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and through the Spheris Gallery in New Hampshire and New York. He will be teaching a master class this next summer through the Great River Arts Institute in Walpole, New Hampshire.