Archibald Peddie Biography

Self Portrait of Archibald Peddie

The only known photograph of Archibald Peddie

Archibald Peddie was born in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute in Scotland on the 15th of August 1917. Helensburgh is a small coastal town lying on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde.

Helensburgh, Birthplace of Archibald Peddie

Very little is known of Peddies early family life.

His family were ambivalent about his love of art growing up, and when he enrolled at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art in the 1930s he funded his studies largely by working as a salmon fisherman on the River Tay.

Archibald received his Arts diploma in 1939.

His talent as a painter had attracted attention and he accepted a scholarship to continue his studies in Italy.

The outbreak of the second world war in September of that year denied Peddie the chance of ever taking up that opportunity.

Laying aside his brushes for the duration of the war, Archibald joined the Armed Forces serving with the Parachute Regiment.

In 1943 while on leave he married Elizabeth Lowe Bowman, known as Betty.

After being de-mobbed at the end of the war Archibald returned to the Glasgow School of Art, working as a visiting teacher of drawing and painting.

A year later he accepted the position of Art master at the newly opened Naemoor School in Kinross-shire.

'Naemoor, Rumbling Bridge' (1954)

He taught during the day and then painted for his own pleasure on his time off in a small studio set up in a converted stables on the School premises.

'Still Life' (1948) Oil on canvas

(Peddies earliest known work)

Peddie stayed teaching at the school until 1953 when he and his family moved to 'Rockmount' in Yetts o' Muckhart so that Betty could care for her ailing mother.

Muckhart and Rumbling Bridge

Peddie was a keen gardener and he often painted the views from his back garden at 'Rockmount' and the garden itself.

'Last of the snow, view across garden of Rockmount'

It is during this period that Peddie mastered his own 'Expressionist' style of 'laying down the paint'.

He perfected his own unique style as all great artists do, and his pictures are immediately recognisable when viewed from the other side of the room.

Whether working in oils on board or watercolour and gouache on paper, Peddie applies the paint in strong, confident brush strokes.

Archibald usually signed his work with 'Arch' Peddie using an abbreviation of Archibald.

He also used the monogram AP.

Many of Peddies pictures have question marks against the dates and locations on the back of his paintings. Some of them say 'before 1962?' or 'between 1955 and 1960'.

I believe this is because he didn't necessarily title and date the pictures at the time he painted them.

I think he added the titles and dates later in life when the memory of specific details of time and place was slightly hazy.

Naemoor Near Rumbling Bridge before 1952?

When we view a larger body of Peddies work it becomes obvious that it is in Nature herself that his main interest lies.

People rarely feature in his work although he did paint pub scenes, portraits and several self portraits.

When people do appear in his work they are usually at a distance or in the background, rather than being the main focal point.

He regularly painted the local harbours with their fishing boats and yachts , and the local Lochs, forests, mountains and hills, especially Seamab, feature time and again in the background of his paintings.

Seamab Hill

One of Peddies versions of Seamab

Archibald painted the changing seasons of the Scottish countryside and his Snowscapes are some of my favourite pictures.

He uses the blues, pinks and mauves of his palette to brilliantly capture the mood and feel of the land, still and silent under a blanket of snow.

His love of the outdoors and the glories of the Scottish landscape has left us with a fantastic legacy of the local countryside he found outside his front door, recorded for posterity in paint.

'Walking on frozen Loch Leven at Kinross'

The Peddies stayed at 'Rockmount' in Muckhart after the death of Bettys mother, and in the late 1950s began to holiday in Spain on the proceeds of an inheritance from a relation.

Like many artists who visit Europe for the first time, Peddies paintings of Spain are saturated with light and colour, and from this period onwards Archibalds views of Scotland are also painted in stronger blocks of colour, laid down quickly with thick brush strokes in what has now become the style of a 'typical' Peddie.

The Peddies also started to travel further afield on their holidays as there are paintings from Venice and France during the 60s and 70s.

Spanish coastal view monogrammed AP

The Loire, France

In 1966 the Peddie family moved to 'Grayswalls', a converted croft house near Falkirk which became their final family home.

Here he had the benefit of a spacious studio to work in, and occasionally began to paint on a larger scale.

The sea, forests and mountains of his back yard still being his main subject matter.

In his fifties at the time, Archibald began to take a deeper interest in his Scottish heritage and learned Gaelic, the Bagpipes and also began wearing a kilt on formal occasions.

The quantity, but not the quality of paintings he produced declined during the 70s and 80s as he got older, and I believe 1985 is the last dated picture of his that I have seen.

I have seen pictures with the 'Glasgow Art Club' label on them but Peddie exhibited his paintings only rarely during his lifetime.

Painting was done purely for his own pleasure and his pictures were only uncovered in his studio after his death.

There is a slight puzzle here over the quantity of works produced.

Archibald painted for 50 years and must have had a total output of around 1000 or 2000 pictures.

Where are they?

I have kept track of his pictures coming up for sale in Auctions over several years and they don't come up for sale very often.

I believe that a sale of Peddies work took place after his death but I have been unable to find out any further details. I am also aware of a sale of around 100 of his pictures in Colchester, Essex in 2012 but don't know if they were sold by family members or a private collector.

Was a large proportion of his work lost or destroyed in storage over the years?

Are there several 'hardcore' Peddie collectors out there with big collections who just don't sell?

My brother Chris and I have around 40 of his pictures so that might be around 2% of his work accounted for!

Archibald Peddie passed away in 1991 and was survived by his wife, daughter Gillian and grandchildren.

His wife Elizabeth passed away seventeen years later in 2008.

Archibald painted for 50 years, almost exclusively for his own pleasure.

He did sell pictures and exhibited works occasionally but didn't seem interested in pushing his work forward to be shown and sold in commercial galleries.

His pictures have appeared fairly regularly since he passed away, and prices have slowly been rising.

Peddie has been undervalued by the 'Art Market', maybe in part because of the lack of information available on his life.

I believe that because of the quality of his pictures, and the longevity of his career, that Archibald Peddie deserves to be acknowledged amongst the pantheon of great 20th century Scottish painters.

The sole aim of this website is to bring his paintings and biography to a wider audience.

Best Regards,

Jon Rounce