Peregrine Heathcote's Paintings

Peregrine Heathcote

The youngest student at the Heatherly College of Arts, Heathcote has morphed from portrait painting to a focus on something more Gatsby-esque. He grew up on Cheyne Walk and still lives in the area with his charming wife, Louise. This Old Harrovian’s stunning paintings hang in some of the finest collections. When he’s not with his easel, Heathcote is either turning his hand to redeveloping properties or collecting clocks.

Peregrine Heathcote was the youngest ever Heatherly College of Art student in London. Aged just 8, he attended holiday classes in printmaking and nude drawing. On his return to the Berkshire prep school, he regaled his fellow classmates with the stories of his holiday experiences. His chest filled with bravura when he saw their faces as he recounted drawing a beautiful naked girl on an old mattress.

Son of an antique dealer specializing in militaria, he was brought up in a house by the Thames crammed with uniforms in glass cases, swords, canons and relics from various historical sea and land battles, more like a museum than a home. Instead of the usual Disney merchandise, in Peregrine's childhood, bedroom walls hung fabrics from the Far and middle east. The room was dominated by an ornate large brass-studded tea chest and was decorated with a collection of hats from around the world.

Peregrine's early life was surrounded by unusual things and unusual characters. Aged 10 he inherited 1938 Arthur Mulliner Rolls Royce. The car was stored in a dusty dark garage and he would sit in the back seats breathing in the deep old leather smells and imagining himself on far away adventures. The grandfather who bequeathed such a fine inheritance ran the 20 Ghost Club for many years and as a result, the car travelled all over the world collecting trophies maps and memorabilia along the way. Peregrine would spend hours absorbed in the logbooks and maps from the various journeys the car had taken. References to these can often be seen in his pictures today as props and atmosphere.

His maternal grandfather was a test pilot for the RAF and Peregrine would often stay with him in Wales listening to adventures of flying secret missions over Europe. He would sometimes take his girlfriends into the skies and impress them with acrobatics and the beautiful views of the landscape. As a result of many years flying, his log books filled with detailed information including the plane types and flight destinations. Heathcote has often used these for inspiration to produce compositions with the same planes and romantically linked couples embarking or returning from various journeys echoing the ones that filled his imagination from his Grandfather's stories.

A couple of weeks after his last A-Level exam Peregrine set off to Italy to discover the drawing and painting techniques used by some of the most famous artists in history. Staying in a medieval dusty Palazzo in Via Santo Spirito and with a "Ciao" from the African Grey parrot every morning, he would at 7.15am, walk the eight minutes to the Chiesa di San Raffaello Archangelo. This was the church where Michelangelo and Rafael prayed before journeying out of the ancient city of Florence through the Porta Frediano. The old church had been converted in the early nineteenth century by the sculptor Bartolini, pupil of the painter Jacques-Louis David into an artist's studio. Being the first to arrive every morning Peregrine would work at his drawings for a couple of hours before receiving his tutorials from the eccentric and renown Yale graduate and multi-award wining artist and art Historian Charles H Cecil. Here Heathcote leaned the nuances that could be achieved in tone and colour later seen in pieces like "Listen to the Colour Of Your Dreams", "First Class Ticket and "Who Was the Girl"

On his return to London after a heady three years in Florence, Peregrine initially set up as a portrait painter. This lead to some notable commissions from Captains of Industry and Celebrities from the Entertainment World which in turn brought him to the attention of a film production company. After some interviews and a screen test the BBC started to film him painting a portrait at the famous London Palladium and finished the program with him unveiling the piece at the Royal Academy.

Five months later, just after the program aired on BBC 2 during prime time capturing 24% of the total viewing audience on TV and satellite, he had his first show at the Albemarle Gallery in London. The show was a retrospective of several portraits borrowed from Clients and a couple of new "Journey" pieces with automobiles and planes reflecting the influences of his grandparents and childhood. The show went well and a second bigger show was booked for the following year.

Peregrine's pictures hang in notable collections across the globe. In particular, his work caught the attention of many American galleries. Peregrine now regularly sends work out to galleries in Boston, Greenwich CT., Nantucket, Scottsdale, San Francisco and Laguna Beach as well as Cape Town in South Africa. Despite several advances and a few shows in galleries in New York he still has yet to find the right more permanent match in this city.

Peregrine's models must all have a natural beauty and elegance, their bodies a graceful line and the ability to adopt a natural 'contra posto' and both the men and women should have the capacity to portray that wonderful silver screen romance. Peregrine often uses original vintage dresses many of which were made for petit women so getting the right model in today's world where agencies tend towards much taller girls can be tricky. He therefore often uses Dancers and Actresses, as well as models who know how to use their bodies to tell his stories and bring them to life . The dapper men and elegant girls come from all over the world bringing with them their exotic international presence. At the last casting call there were over 840 replies and from those only three were chosen for the recent set of paintings. A petit, pale golden haired, Siberian girl modelled for "A Day To Remember" and "Who Was The Girl".

At Heathcote's studio, an extensive wardrobe of props, clothing, hats, toy cars, planes and trains appears in the paintings. Once the suitable models have been chosen, each scene is set up, and the composition is often arranged to include one of the signature suitcases, complete with travel labels that used to belong to Peregrine's late Mother. Unfortunately, she died a few months before the BBC program aired, and he has immortalised her presence in his work by using these references to her possessions.

Over the last year, the average time it has taken to sell a new piece once it arrives at one of the galleries has been about two weeks. To accommodate those who have missed out on purchasing one of these paintings, occasionally Heathcote issues an image in a small number of 10-15 Limited Edition Giclee Prints signed and numbered. These prints are further certified with a unique Heavy Duty Embossing Seal with the Peregrine Heathcote Studio Logo but can only be purchased from either www.PeregrineHeathcote.com or www.NewburyFineArts.com. For those who wish to purchase an original, there will be a show for the whole of September at the Albemarle Gallery, London, one in January at the Bonner David Gallery, one in February at Newbury Fine Arts in Boston and another at the Cavalier Galleries Greenwich CT. in June and July.