Peter Hardie Exhibition Opening
Stephen Bell
Summary
Stephen Bell opens the Peter Hardie exhibition at the BCS Moorgate offices on behalf of the Computer Arts Society, explaining that the show runs until roughly September and that visitors can book via the society’s website, while the catalogue and a video show reel are also available online. Bell then presents an overview of his friend and colleague Peter Hardie, whose practice from 2004 to 2019 involved modelling and animating virtual scenes in the 3D animation system Softimage XSI rather than using 2D paint systems. Hardie renders scenes with a virtual camera, often compositing layers to produce a distinctive painterly style informed by Monet, Riley and Bonnard, transforming observed moments in landscape—light on water, reflections, sparkles on the sea, waterfalls—into quiet, non-narrative, contemplative animations. Bell notes that Hardie studied photographs and locations, then abstracted their essential qualities through painstaking technical work, collaborating with others such as Andy Hayes on shaders. The talk screens these animations in thematic order, tracing exhibitions at Bridport Arts Centre, SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles, New Greenham Arts and elsewhere, and invites the audience to experience the work as they would a painting.
This AI summary was generated by kimi-k2.7-code (13th August 2026).