All about Christopher Peterson

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It’s all about Drawing

From the time he was a kid, Chris Peterson loved to draw. He and his friends used to while away hours and hours sitting at the coffee table, drawing and inventing vehicles and buildings. To this day, he cannot attend a concert without his sketchbook, drawing the entire scene in a well -developed finished piece before the show is done. In his view, painting is drawing. The only difference is that with the added dimension of paint, you’re dealing with masses and shapes, and not just lines. Either way, the marks on the surface are where it’s at.

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The Urban Landscape

Mr Peterson’s paintings are fundamentally urban landscapes, featuring familiar scenes from the highly mechanized and complex life we all live. Working most of the time (but not always) from photographs, he’s constantly shooting and editing, to find the best combination of light, color and design for his paintings. He works primarily in oil on canvas, and makes his own floater frames. He is represented by SHOH gallery in Berkeley, CA., and has exhibited at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, as well as many group shows throughout the Bay Area and the country. His paintings are in many private and corporate collections, including the US Air Force art collection.

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List of Credits

Mr Peterson straddles the wobbly line between Fine and Applied art. He is best known for having designed over 150 posters for San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, as well as other bands, venues and festivals. He has designed posters for Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Phish, Peter Frampton, Bonnie Raitt, and most recently for Van Morrison. The list goes on. His work has been published in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Art of Modern Rock by Paul Grushkin and Dennis King – Chronicle Books 2004; Illustrators 41 Society of Illustrators New York, and Print’s Regional Design annual.

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More Info

After a 35 year career as a painter and illustrator in the San Francisco Bay Area, Christopher Peterson now lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina.

My work can be seen at galleries in Berkeley, CA. and Asheville, NC.