I think I have blogged about Pete McKee before. Let me see... Yes! Go here.He is a fifty nine year old Sheffield artist who found his own, distinctive style some years ago. His work is much loved in this city and many homes display original McKees or prints of his work.
A typical painting by Pete McKee - "Spit and Polish"
He grew up on the Batemoor housing estate to the south of the city and attended a secondary school where I used to teach. In fact, he was there at the same time as me in the early eighties.
The city's Weston Park Museum honoured him last year by inviting him to curate an exhibition of his own work and through the past eleven months that particular gallery has been very popular. I had been before with the granddaughters but I vowed to go back on my own so that I could soak it all up without distraction on a quiet midweek afternoon. That absorption day was Wednesday of this week.
Pete McKee based this painting on a seaside photo booth snap
Only a few months later his mother would be dead.
Through the paintings and the carefully considered labels that sit alongside each one Pete McKee bared his heart. His mother died when he was only seven years old and that tragedy has stayed with him like a tattoo. He knew deprivation but his two brothers, his older sister and his widowed father gave him a loving family home which he recalls with gratitude, affection and good humour.
He has always been passionate about music and his football club - Sheffield Wednesday. His pride in the city of his birth is almost tangible. He would not want to come from anywhere else.
Pete McKee's painting of Sheffield's "pram man" - John Burkhill
who has raised over £1 million for Macmillan Cancer Support
Pete McKee does not paint for high brow intellectuals and he does not have some lofty philosophy to convey through his art. His style is simple and cartoonish, rooted in his experience and the warm, often humorous way that he looks at the world around him.
There were some instructional videos at the exhibition
I thoroughly enjoyed those two hours of absorption and I am very glad that I took the trouble to go back before the exhibition shuts down next month. Thank you Pete!
"The Wake" - Pete McKee recalled his mother's funeral when he was seven
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