Houston-based hyperrealist artist Kevin Peterson creates fairytale-like dreamscapes through his paintings, conveying unlikely friendships between children and wild animals and juxtaposing them with rundown, urban landscapes.
“My work is about the varied journeys that we take through life,” his artist statement explains, “It’s about growing up and living in a world that is broken. These paintings are about trauma, fear and loneliness and the strength that it takes to survive and thrive. They each contain the contrast of the untainted, young and innocent against a backdrop of a worn, ragged, and defiled world.”
The jarring, yet beautiful, imagery, caught the attention of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who subsequently used one of Peterson’s paintings, Coalition II, depicting a young girl walking with a bear, raccoon and a fox through a graffitied street, for the cover of their new album, The Getaway.
Peterson has said of the collaboration that “the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, saw an image of the piece and really liked it”, further sharing the image with fellow Chili's member Flea, “who liked it as well”. They didn’t know the artist responsible so took to Twitter and asked their followers, who then pointed him in the right direction. It was from there that their manager got in contact with Peterson, asking for permission to use the image for their album cover. Check out some more of Kevin Peterson’s mesmerising paintings below.
For more of Kevin's work be sure to plug into his website & Instagram account.
The new Red Hot Chili Peppers' album The Getaway drops this Friday (June 17) and can be copped where all red hot music is sold | streamed.
