Artsy Shark is pleased to present Featured Artist Peter Worsley. Eighty years young, he paints vibrant canvases of people, places and moments which are appealing and timeless. Visit his website and blog for more information and  his full portfolio. Peter shares his bio and discusses his work . . .


Born in England, Peter Worsley 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 world-class artists who teach locally.  He has always had 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 representational, colorful, figurative picture stories, using oil on canvas.
Active in the local art community, Worsley is a Past President of both the Santa Barbara and Goleta Valley Art Association, an associate member of Oil Painters of America, a member of the Santa Barbara Studio Artists, and a Founder and Director of Santa Barbara Visual Arts Alliance.

What are your artistic goals?

Finding the right channels for others to see and buy my work. I spend most mornings painting and many afternoons marketing. Much of the marketing time is spreading the word though my website and occasional Twitters announcing new paintings and other important art events in my life. In the Twitters I always include a link where more information is available and use Twitters “Connections” feature to communicate my Twitters to my Facebook friends (mostly family) and, more importantly, my many Linkedin connections. Occasionally, I send out newsletters to my ever growing opt-in email list.

Also, I spend time working the many Linkedin art-related group discussions, since they connect with many important people in the Visual Art world, and frequently result in more connections.

What are you working on now?

For some time I have been developing representational, colorful, figurative, Picture Paintings. These are of ordinary people doing everyday things. Think Norman Rockwell updated to the 21st century.

I often provide a few words of a story, but encourage the viewer to produce their own ideas. These paintings are easy to understand and have a wide appeal to those art collectors who enjoy paintings that are realistic and reflecting the social events that they know.

I work from the thousands of digital photographs that I take while traveling. Usually I integrate multiple images into a specific story, essentially creating the story from the events that have gone on around me.

What inspires you?

People! They are a never ending reservoir of ideas. I like to capture everyday events as I see the world go by. The emotions in people’s faces plus their body language give endless opportunities to build simple stories to which most people may relate.

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