Peter Harskamp paints (in addition to still lifes) characters, characters in their daily doings – individuals, male or female – whether or not surrounded by animals, especially cats or owls. He does this in a stylized realism, where the characters and their surroundings seem very contemplative and purged of incidentals. The whole radiates beauty, balance, peace and tenderness out. Across the turbulent chaos of the times they are a source of peace. His works show us people and animals that look distorted and have almost geometric contours. This relative abstraction does not lead to a static design. The momentum remains intact and the figures show as incarnate archetypes.
