Peter Haigh 1914-1994

Trained as a textile sample dyer before becoming an artist, Haigh’s skills equipped him with a sophisticated eye for colour and his sensitivity for tonal variation.

Haigh grew up near Huddersfield in Yorkshire. He sold his first painting aged fifteen, but despite precocious beginnings, the intervention of the War impeded his progress in becoming an artist. He attended Hatherley's School of Art (1946-9) under Iain MacNab, before going to Goldsmiths' School of Art where he met his future wife Patricia (who later became a commercial painter).

At the beginning of the 1950s, following a show at Wildenstein, Haigh was given financial support to work in France for six months by a wealthy benefactor from the Shell Oil Company.

Between 1949-55 his work was included in a number of mixed exhibitions including, RBA, NS, US, Roland, Browse & Delbanco, Beaux Arts, Zwemmer Gallery, Leicester Galleries and The Redfern Gallery.

Haigh’s early paintings were in the manner of Walter Sickert, whose work (along with Augustus John's) he much admired, but gradually he moved toward geometric abstraction, typically in a muted palette. Haigh was a meticulous craftsman, noting each time he worked on a painting so that he could return to it, utilising all available time from morning light until late in the afternoon.

In 1988 The Pride Gallery held a major retrospective. Ambiente Gero, Galeria de Arte, Valencia held a further show in 1991.