The comments of Howard Hull, Director of Brantwood
Piers Williams is an artist whose work both beguiles and challenges our feeling for the nature of things.
Its apparent simplicity of subject matter and approach - the highly magnified view of the heart of a flower - belies a riveting complexity that is both a deeper view of nature and a performance of intense and committed artistry.

The huge scale, dramatic lighting and bravura photo-realism are all part of this performance.  To enter an exhibition of Piers' work is to attend a theatrical event.  Having broken the bounds of their own nature, these flowers appear capable of almost limitless size. Each bloom is a character in the fullness of self-expression.  Everything a flower should be by way of a 'Wow!' is captured in this beguiling and masterful presentation.  And yet for mankind, flowers themselves are not so simple. Our encounter with them is complex, full of emotional and symbolic relationship.  While their beauty suits them for garlands, nature places them at our feet.  Surely this demands something more of the painter than a 'Wow!'?

The voice of any true painter is revealed in their feeling for paint.  And this is where Piers reveals his real gift, for his touch is full of the sensitivity and openness that allows us to feel an emotional connection with his subject matter.

In the heart of these vast petal labyrinths pure qualities of light and colour interplay in an almost abstract, musical fashion, always enriched by the gentlest and most generous of handling.  Piers has a consummate sense of rhythm and pace. Passages of vibrant energy or sudden contrast are relieved by backgrounds or larger petal expanses which hum quietly.  All express a subtle vitality that is a unity.

Working in a manner reminiscent of quattro cento and early renaissance techniques, Piers scumbles layers of colour over one another to create an indeterminate special depth which he likens to a mist.

The longer we look, the more meditated and meditative these images become.  Flower speaks.  Artist speaks.  Flower sings.

Howard Hull, 2006

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