Peter Kotka paintings

Peter Kotka was born in February 1951 of an English mother and an Estonian father. He started his working life as a toolmaker and designer of aluminium extrusion dies. He began to paint in 1979, and is entirely self-taught. In 1983 he gave up his “day time” job and became a professional Artist.

He has an absolute love of Oil painting and especially admires the masters of Dutch painting of the seventeenth century, which is reflected in his own work. In 1995, during one of his visits to his father’s homeland, in Tallinn, he visited and exhibition of the work of Olav Maran, a renowned Estonian Artist who specialised in Still Life. Peter Kotka paintings are very traditional and this exhibition had such an effect on Peter that on his return he started researching the Still Life works of the great artists, Willem Kalf and De Heem.

After much experimenting with various techniques, he has developed a style with detail and atmosphere that is essential in his portrayal of fine wines, whisky, port fruit and cheeses etc. All his works are done from “life” and as a result he has learnt much about good wines and cheeses.

Peter Kotka paintings are in fine collections throughout the world, and his paintings are reproduced on greetings cards and collectors plates. He gives lectures and demonstrations on oil painting techniques in the style of the masters and teaches two local Art Groups near his home in Warwickshire.