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Whilst many artists will spend their lives sticking to one genre, Pete Kennedy's work takes many forms.

The Goldhanger artist's back catalogue consists of paintings, fictional writing, prints, sculptures, puppets and installations, depending on what he feels is the best medium to deliver his ideas.

"My art is really to do with imagination, exploration, ideas and originality," he says.

'Apulhed' created in rock form

'Apulhed'

Pete began painting in 1967, initially concentrating on portraits, but in the early 1970s began to explore the world of fantasy, which coincided with the creation of his one of most recurrent fantasy character, 'Apulhed'.

Of his creation, which has spawned a number of books and is depicted in a variety of visual forms, Pete says: "I was able to step back from myself and look at every day life and have a slightly more objective view, from the point of view of an outsider.

"Also, I could never draw Superman like one of my very good friends at school. He could do beautiful superhero characters, but I couldn't do that as I couldn't get their muscles right.

Pete with two versions of the same scene

"So when I created 'Apulhed', he could fly but he had no muscles!"

The thought process...

Pete says the creative process can be full of challenges and contradictions: "I like to think I'm open ended in terms of where I'm going and I like to think that I can make discoveries as I'm doing a painting," he explains.

"But I think more often than not I like to control where I am going as well, so there's a bit of a battle going on there."

Pete's love and knowledge of the history of art is extensive, which naturally has an effect on his own work.

Ammonite Question

"All creative arts have got what they call 'precedence'," he explains.

"There's about a 100 artists that I love the work of, but there's probably about five or 10 that keep cropping up more and more as my favourites.

"It's like cooking a cake," he continues. "The ingredients go into the cake and today we'll have some Picasso-style cutting and pasting, or cubism and [then some] Van Gogh with bright colours and daubs...

Pete's latest work is a complex self portrait

"It's not exactly like that, but those are obviously in the back of your consciousness."

The Maldon Art Trail

Pete is one of a number of artists involved in the first ever Maldon Art Trail, which is taking place this October.

He believes schemes such as the Maldon example are great initiatives, for both the town and also for the artists.

"I think it's one of the best things to happen to Maldon since I came into the area in 1976. It's long, long overdue," he says.

"It's nice to be appreciated as well, because often you go through life trying your best and not really getting noticed and it's really nice when people say 'oh yeah, that's good', and you think 'great, someone's appreciating it."

Ever keen to explore new ways of expressing himself, Pete has recently become more and more intrigued by the possibilities of multimedia and also by 'living art' - using nature's own process to create scenes.

It's just the latest stage in his ever-evolving approach to art.