Dark Energy (The
Shee)(From the book "Dark Icons")By : Deborah Susan Jones : Editor
One of a series of
paintings created in the early 90s as an exploration of
the idea of energy as a force that can live in objects
and artifacts.Arrow books in London had begun publishing
Joe Donnelly's horror books and the company wanted a
book cover treatment that diverted the viewer, and
reader, from the specific content of the story and
instead towards a feeling and mood when seeing the
cover, and the images that Peter had been creating for
his own purposes easily worked in tandem with Arrow's
aims, and so the two became united as marketing
treatment for Joe's books and this painting was licensed
as the cover art for Donnelly's book, The Shee.These "dark" pictures were possibly triggered
by Peter's previous involvement with the Target Games
release of Kult , a roleplay game concept, and his
visualisations for their products, and, these pictures,
which were quite a departure from his harder edged
science fiction works, had more of a moody and painterly
treatment in parts and this traveled on into a series of
his own initiatives though they ten ended up on
publications in the final event.As the years went by, and the
artist's involvements in differing areas of genre
publishing accumulated, from hard edged 70s science
fiction, through carefully planned multiple piece
constructs for mainstream and industrial television
scenes, to gigantic pieces for film posters, to more avant
garde horror pieces and the many, many roleplay games
covers he became such a powerhouse studio for, all
accumulated into a vast palette of techniques, skills and
methods of working that eventually gave him so much more
command of the picture making process than he could have
imagined when he began his career.These "dark" horror images live
on today as they find their influential way into
contemporary works where the artist can call upon the
experience gained in the 90s and use it in areas of
current works when deemed appropriate.Deborah Susan Jones
