Artist releases book of work depicting city scenes

Peter Brown, also known as Pete the Street, paints landscapes and street scenes

An artist who paints street scenes and landscapes around the world has released a book about his work in Bristol.

Artist Peter Brown, also known as "Pete the Street", has spent 32 years capturing views of cities including Bath, London and New York.

He hopes the book Bristol Paintings will help readers discover new places and revisit familiar locations.

"I just hope that I've captured some sort of feeling of what it's actually like to live or be in Bristol," he said.

Mr Brown said he only started exploring the city during the Covid pandemic.

He added: "That's the beauty of drawing and painting, it really helps you look and analyse stuff and then you really discover the area.

"The best compliment is when people say 'I've lived here all my life and you've captured it'."

The 58-year-old began painting when he was about 15.

Although he studied art at school and college, he gave it up until he moved to Bath for a foundation course in 1993.

The city inspired him to start drawing again and he began creating and selling his work on the streets.

He has captured punters at Glastonbury Festival, crowds mourning the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace and the public's reaction after Banksy's Valentine's day mascara appeared on the side of a house in Kent.

It took "ages" for Mr Brown to head to Bristol with his kit.

"I have no understanding why that is," he said.

Once Mr Brown made the journey from Bath, he said he felt "like a kid in a sweet shop".

"Painting Bristol was such an eye-opener for me," he said.

"It's so different to Bath - Bath is a beautiful city, it's always been a city of leisure, but Bristol is an industrial city that's pulled in a huge, varied population.

"It's got an amazing landscape to it, the lumps and bumps and the gorge and all that.

"There's some beautiful traffic scenes which I'm inspired by, but also it's nice painting the high streets and little residential areas and stuff like that," he added.

Mr Brown said he had only "scratched the surface" and was still "discovering the city in bits".