PIERS OTTEY

Born in London, Piers trained at Chelsea School of Art in the 1970's and has been painting ever since. He moved to West Sussex in 1980 and set up The Mill Studio in 1994.

Painting mostly in oils, his subject matter has often been influenced by his travels to Greece, Spain, France and Denmark but he always returns to painting from the human form and local Sussex lanscapes.

Pier's work has been exhibited in London, the provinces and abroad and can be found in private and corporate as well as public collections around the world. The paintings are very personal with a mischievous quality, bordering on the subversive.

There is also the issue of the 'code' of colours often seen around the edge of his canvasses. These form a diary; a record of all the colours used to make the image and in the order they were made and used. For Piers, the edges of the picture are important, so is the geometry between the edge and the centre. The square is his most common format; primary red and blue form his initial drawing.

"Surface quality should be special" he says and all viewers should feel free to feel the surface of the work.

In June 2007 Piers won the University of Bath painting prize, and has had work aquired by both Worthing and Portsmouth Museums.