Peter Worsley

I paint ordinary people doing everyday things at interesting places. My strongly edited realistic images of the world reflect the emotions and humor of life's interactions.

They are easy to understand, happy, colorful, often emotional, narrative or picture stories, scenes, and portraits.

Bold contrasts and the limited palette of my paintings, draws you in with their brightness and color. Often with touches of Edward Hopper, Edward Biberman, Max Ginsburg, Andrew Wyeth, or David Arsenault, each with their compelling sense of mood, time, and place that describe moments of shared human experience.

You, the viewer, are encouraged to engage your own unique thoughts, dreams, feelings, and experiences to complete the pictures in new and unexpected ways.

They may be found in many private and corporate collections, and are collected internationally.

When traveling, or out and around Santa Barbara, I take hundreds of digital photographs. An occasional image inspires me as the basis for a Genre painting. In my studio, I display such photos on my computer's screen, and paint directly to the canvas. Often multiple images from quite different events are blended together to make a story, a scenic event, or place. I try to captures the feelings and interactions of the actors, with subtlety and humor. When painting, I mix my colors from just a few light-fast pigments. This often results in colorful backgrounds and bold painterly details. Carefully following the Notan concept of utilizing a wide range of contrasts, my paintings are prized for their compelling colors, bold shadows, and a strong sense of composition.

Born in England, Peter came to California in 1956, and to Santa Barbara in 1970. His serious work in the visual arts began in 1996, after retiring from some fifty years in industry. Though largely self taught, he studied with some of the wonderful artists who teach locally.

Always, he has a strong desire to include people in his paintings. To him, people add life. After initially choosing to work in watercolor, Peter gradually introduced opaque gouache into his work, producing many gouache paintings over several years. From these early struggles, Peter has evolved to where today he paints figurative art, using oil on canvas.

Active in the local art community, Worsley is a Past President of both the Santa Barbara Art Association and the Goleta Valley Art Association, a member of the Santa Barbara Studio Artists, associate member of the Oil Painters of America, and was a Founder and Director of the Santa Barbara Visual Arts Alliance.

Peter Worsley regards studying art and art history as a never-ending process, with always more to discover and skills to hone. He continues to experiment - trying new subjects, new methods, and new materials.

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