Peter Smith

Shelf Life’s contemporary still-life paintings merge every-day kitchen cupboard essentials with a mischievous twist, bringing together Peter's rich background in character graphics and the duo's humorous approach to life.

Peter's journey as a contemporary still-life painter intertwines seamlessly with the duo’s creative vision, resulting in artworks renowned for their intricate details and vibrant colours. Inspired by popular culture, parody, and a desire to rediscover the fun in life, the Smiths' creations capture the essence of childhood whimsy while offering a fresh and humorous perspective on everyday items.

Drawing inspiration from classic still-life masters to the Lowbrow Surreal Art Movement, Shelf Life invites viewers to reimagine everyday kitchen items through a playful lens. Each artwork subverts well-known brands and taglines, offering a humorous take on consumer culture. As tongue-in-cheek parodies, the collection pays homage to Peter's childhood dream of creating quirky versions of familiar items.

Full of ingenious riddles, wordplay and visual jokes, the duo’s surreal yet endearing artworks make an incredible gift or finishing touch to a home. Adult themes of love, debauchery and gluttony are underpinned by a desire to make his collectors smile and remember “the imaginative wonderment and limitless creativity” we experienced as children, which Peter believes is “something we lost as we got a little older.”

With an experienced background in character graphics Peter Smith is an expert in capturing the essence of a person within drawing and animation. Originally intrigued by how few features allowed him to expressively capture and portray a person's character the Impossimals were born and grew to represent many real people in Peter and Jaynes circle of family, friends, and colleagues.

Since then, Peters Impossimal renderings have captured the cultural imagination of a huge number of art lovers growing into a loyal collector base. By no means simple creations, the Impossimals have grown to encompass a rich backstory and span several expressions of existence. The Impossimals have always been created for and beloved by an adult audience, encompassing classic British wit and sarcasm; representing adult themes and recognisable expressions.

With everyone finding that little something they love, the Impossimals have become the most recognisable characters in Fine Art, no doubt down to Peters fine artistic craftsmanship and the amusing, ironic and all too relevant situational humour they find themselves in! The Impossimals have gained a dedicated following among art enthusiasts for their unique blend of humour, creativity, and artistic craftsmanship.

Peter and Jayne Smith are shaking things up in their new The Shaker Maker collection, which sees Peter’s art put a naughty new spin on a series of classic cocktails. The Shaker Maker sees the Impossimals bring out in glorious bold colour the fun we know and love, coupled with a bit of Dutch courage and a reminder to find the humour in life, ourselves and the times we share with friends and family!

This collection sees the Impossimals vignetted by a classic and simple black background, letting the bold colours of the vibrant oil paints radiate the fun we know and love. Peter often crafts his paintings in 3D by hand, allowing him to explore the interplay of light, form, colour, and texture in a controlled and creative way. These extensive preparations provide a beautiful quality and finish to his paintings.

From their witty imaginations comes their SIP collection of limited editions and originals featuring their loveable Impossimals getting saucy with the addition of a little glass of something boozy. This new collection features the Impossimals in comedic situations with their favourite bottles of booze. The humour in the Smith’s pieces is key to their appeal – if you own one, it’s bound to make you smile, and with the many kinds of drinks they feature, you can build your own virtual cocktail bar of art.

From delectable cocktails to tasty tarts, Peter and Jayne Smith's 2022 collection sees the artistic duo playfully mix provocative themes with sugary treats to create a series of satirical artworks sure to lighten your day.

This collection is inspired by the true origin story of Liquorice Allsorts. In 1899, Bassett Factory salesman Charlie Thompson was trying to sell a variety of liquorice covered sweets when he dropped the tray onto the floor, they loved how they looked all mixed together and the famous sweets were born. Channelling the colourfully chaotic spirit of this happy accident, Peter and Jayne Smith dropped a series of their sketches onto the floor, and the resultant playful mix of their beloved Impossimals in a range of risky positions resulted in the Ticklish Allsorts collection.

We see the beloved Impossimal characters continue to be set against more detailed backgrounds than ever before which draw the viewer in and create exciting and detailed scenes that you can get lost in for hours. Available in a range of sizes and compositions, this collection also features a range of unique original artworks.

While their mischievous antics may put a smile on our faces, the Impossimals are anything but cute! From sordid jokes to downright rude innuendoes, Peter and Jayne push the boundaries of what respectable people should hang on their walls. Their previous escapades have explored everything from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to Punch and Judy, Doctor Who and The Great British Bake-Off, with a wide range of limited edition prints and sculptures, original watercolour and oil paintings, and hand-drawn sketches available.

The new Pick 'N' Mix collection celebrates 15 years of the mischievous duo's best-loved creations, with one limited edition artwork per year they've been wreaking havoc. Available in a wide range of shapes and sizes, these hand-varnished canvas on board artworks are hand-signed by Peter, who personally inspected each one after working with our specialist atelier team to reimagine his original oil paintings. Framed in a sustainable black pine, each one includes a humorous scene filled with boozy antics or sweet treats. 

It took 18 months, the building of large theatres and the creation of seven two-foot high models (plus a lot of Impossimal humour) to bring this collection to life! For the paintings and sketches, Peter works mainly in oils on board, with clay and cloth used for the sculptures. Jayne uses clay to form all of the patterns, plaster for the shapes and wildlife, metals and mixed media for the background and oil and acrylic paint for the colours. Each piece is then finished with a clear water resin.

Peter and Jayne Smith are back with the new instalment of their eccentric drink-themed Sotally Tober collection. The Impossimal saga continues with a new cocktail of booze-themed artworks by Peter and his wife, Jayne. The pair initially set out to create a sensible collection, but it turned into a party that got rather wild. Brushes were cast aside along with art-related clothing, and the pair emerged from the studio six months later with a hangover that could knock out a whale.

This collection is now sold out, but the follow-up collection released in 2019 is still available.