Sold at Auction: Peter Markey

Peter Markey (b. 1930) studied painting at Swansea Art College and taught art for 25 years in secondary schools. He left teaching in 1980 and began making simple wooden automata after someone innocently suggested that he try making his footballer sculptures move. This coincided with the opening of Cabaret in Falmouth where he lived.

Peter has had many exhibitions of his mechanical work and his paintings. His work is known for it’s simplicity of design and the use of bright colours. He makes little attempt at realistic representation and never carves the wood he uses. This means that square-shaped wood results in square-headed people and animals.

runnersPeter is fascinated by the seemingly ridiculous idea of trying to produce wave-like motions from wood. He has made many ‘wave machines’ using a variety of simple but effective mechanisms.

Over recent years, in his efforts to find simpler and faster ways of working, Peter has often left his work unpainted. Peter claims that his models have a great tolerance for poor workmanship but despite their apparent simplicity many imitators have failed to produce results of such charm.

He says that he makes things because he can’t stop.