Peter Layne Arguimbau is an American painter, restorer and historian of classical art. Peter paints portraits, animals,
and landscapes, but is notorious for his classical marines. Peter’s father, Vincent, was a portrait painter who started to develop his son’s skills at an early age. In 1958 a colleague of Vincent’s came to the Arguimbau’s home to concoct a 17th century paint formula known as the Maroger Medium, all under Peter’s watchful eye. Following this nascent realization Peter began a lifelong pursuit of the technique and study of Renaissance painting.
Born in Darien, Connecticut in 1951, the family lived between Scotts Cove and Seville, Spain. After attending Loomis Chaffee and Vassar College, Peter went on to study under Frank Mason at the Art Students League of New York for 14 years. Peter then traveled abroad for a three year classical study of the Baroque Era in Florence, Rome, and Naples, as well as Hellenistic Classicism in Athens, Olympia, and Delphi. He learned the techniques of the old masters by copying paintings from museums throughout Europe and America. After a decade spent testing recipes from 15th century manuscripts with restorer Pierro Mannoni, Peter continues to grind his colors from powdered pigments and cooks his mediums by hand.
From Connecticut Post, June 11, 2018
Peter Layne Arbuimbau: A Consummate Artist of the Old Masters School of Art
by Rosemarie T. Anner
Peter Layne Arguimbau smears a dab of iron oxide on a strip of wood with a palette knife. “Look at it,” he says. “It’s a beautiful tonal sepia soup.” He mixes in a bit of powdered light-blue pigment and meshes the two substances together with his fingers. Suddenly, as if he were an alchemist, he achieves a fierce blue color with tremendous depth. He picks up one of his paintings, of a young woman with luxurious dark, wavy hair that seems to glisten in the light. “This is the same blue,” he says pointing to the center of a mass of hair. It looks black to me.
A nationally recognized artist of marine paintings, Arguimbau is so much more than the simple biography of him that has appeared in numerous publications and gallery press releases over the years. His seascapes of yachts are much prized by collectors but less known is his other work: woodlands, still life, portraiture, animals and religious subjects. All of his oil paintings glisten with luminosity and translucence. He has an uncanny talent to draw you deeper into the moment the scene was captured on canvas. He is also a consummate artist, from mixing pigments with oxides in the manner of the Flemish Masters to painting his seascapes from the cockpit of his catboat the Molly Rose.He creates iron, zinc, sulfate, and magnesium oxides to meld with only a handful of powdered pigments to achieve incredible nuances of color. This is only part of his story. (To keep reading, please click here)
Articles by Peter Arguimbau
LOOKING THROUGH THE VARNISH OF LUMINISM
MANUFACTURE OF RENAISSANCE ART
MICHELANGELO SISTINE ESSAY 2014
PLASTICITY IN RENAISSANCE ART 2017
RISE AND FALL OF RENAISSANCE PAINTING 2016