Exhibitions
A rather reluctant exhibitor in his early professional career, Piers displayed his horse portraits at the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club in the 1980's and was not persuaded to hold a further showing until a full decade later at the Richford Gallery, Wells-next-the-Sea.

In 2006 Piers held a joint exhibition with Neil Woodall entitled 'From then 'til Now', with work derived from northern landscapes by Turner, Girtin & Cotman before successfully exhibited his recent paintings 'The Attraction of Flowers' at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield and two years later 'Flower Power', at John Ruskin's house, Brantwood in Coniston.

Click here to read what Howard Hull, the Director of the Ruskin Foundation, had to say about Piers' collection.

Piers on his own flower paintings;

"I'm intensely interested in the beauty of flowers.

"It seems strange to me that flowers, which are mostly designed by nature to attract insects and birds, should be so attractive to humans as well.  It is as if there were a universal law of beauty that applied to all living things."

"When a flower is greatly enlarged it looks strange; its disordered geometry leads the eye inexorably to the centre and has a hypnotic effect, even a slight hint of menace."

"Its serious purpose of reproduction is less disguised.  Quite different to the small soft blob of colour we are used to seeing."

"Painting these pictures has made me wonder whether we do not always see things quite as objectively as we think. Perhaps our views are more influenced by our perspective than we realise."

"Although these paintings look modern, they are painted using very traditional techniques, comprising carefully built up layers of colour in both transparent and opaque oil paint."

A brief history
Born in 1957, brought up in Japan and Hong Kong, educated at boarding schools in England... including the same prep school as Prince Charles, Piers also spent many happy summers in Hong Kong where his prodigious talent for art first flourished.

After a year at junior college in California as a fine arts major, he went on to the prestigious Chelsea and Byam Shaw art schools in London until 1979 and has worked as a figurative painter, in a variety of media, ever since.

Now living in Yorkshire with his Chinese wife Hailin, Piers has not lost his love of travel, with Mongolia and Norway amongst his favourite destinations and always visits China at least once a year.  He somehow still finds the time to engage in his other hobbies of cooking, eating, drinking and playing blues guitar... whilst painting most days!

Piers' art career
Until 1985 Piers was almost exclusively known for his portraits of race horses, earning a deserved reputation that took him on commissions to Australia, Hong Kong and Kentucky.

His notable horse owning clients included the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and (the late) Lord Weinstock, for whom he painted the 200th Derby winner, 'Troy'.

Since widening his portfolio of work, Piers has enjoyed many international commissions for still life, portraits and landscapes from both private individuals and corporate clients including the Hong Kong Club and the Peninsular Hotel Group.