‘Lost Alice’, the new collection from surrealist artist Peter Smith celebrating 150 years of Alice in Wonderland, launches at Castle Galleries in Milton Keynes today (Oct 2).
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s famous children’s novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871), the series of six new oil paintings and four sculptures feature familiar characters including Alice, the Hatter, the Caterpillar and the White Rabbit.
Yet this ‘Wonderland’ is also unfamiliar – a place that is now under threat from Alice's last visit when she left behind seven sins from the mortal world. The collection, which tells its own story of Alice’s adventures, has taken the acclaimed artist nine months, 36kg of clay, 36 maquettes and over 5,000 individually made objects to create.
To accompany the new works, Peter is writing a novel called ‘Lost Alice – Wonderland Unwound’.
“We couldn’t ignore the fact that Alice in Wonderland celebrates its 150th birthday this year,” he said.
“…be prepared to view a different kind of Wonderland; a Wonderland twisted and crafted around classic literature mixed with fairy tales through the eyes of a very different Alice.”
“Peter’s new collection invites the viewer into a wondrous world of surrealism and symbolism. Fans of the work can take pleasure in this collection on two levels; the expertly painted compositions – which Peter painstakingly built in clay before painting – and the story behind them,” added Peter Viet-Lu, Gallery Manager for Castle Galleries, Milton Keynes.
“This year, Castle Fine Art celebrates 20 years in the business and a decade of working with Peter, who remains one of our top selling artists across out portfolio nationwide.”
