Painter Peter Kinley was born in Vienna, his father was Jewish and the family was forced to leave after the Anschluss in 1938. He was sent to Lytham St Anne’s and was fostered by a Catholic family; his parents were interned in France.  He studied at Dusseldorf Academy and later at St Martin’s School of Art.  He left London in 1970 to teach at Bath Academy and his work began to reflect his country existence.  He saw his own work as being figurative, but not in the nineteenth century sense of realism or naturalism, but just as based on observation of the subject. During the 1950s Kinley became fascinated by Islamic art and architecture, in particular the conventions of Egyptian wall painting with its heretic treatment of objects, This fascination informed his work for the rest of his life. Kinley died in September 1988.

He wrote of his work Turtle with Towers that ‘I try to make paintings that are strong enough to remain in the memory as coherent images even after a brief encounter, and I am concerned with the rehabilitation of the language of painting as an independent means of expression... My paintings are often the result of direct observation, but sometimes reflect other kinds of personal experience and concerns.  For instance, I have frequently painted animals I have seen to reassert, among other things, their right to respect in a culture which I believe accords them only marginal consideration.

Turtle with Towers 1984
Oil on canvas
76.2 x 101.6 cm
Purchased from the artist, February 1985