Photograpy by Gary McGuffin

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Peter Adams is an award-winning painter and visual artist. For three decades he's been using his art to explore our relationship with nature: how we value it and connect to it, and how our engagement with nature changes it, and changes us. His work encourages conversation around beauty, isolation, entanglement and power.  Peter has lived in southern Ontario since moving from Glasgow to Toronto as a young child and now lives in Collingwood. He has been invited to participate in residencies in diverse landscapes from the Amazon rainforest of Brazil to the High Arctic of the Svalbard Archipelago. He has received numerous grants from the Ontario Arts Council and has been a finalist in the Salt Spring National Art Prize, the Kingston Prize and the Scottish Portrait Award in Fine Art.

Awards

  • Scottish Portrait Award Finalist, Edinburgh, 2024

  • Salt Spring National Art Prize Finalist, Salt Spring Island B.C., 2023

  • 3rd Place, Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival, 2022

  • Best of Show, Visual Elements 62, Woodstock Art Gallery, Woodstock, ON, 2020

  • People's Choice Award, Latcham Art Centre Juried Exhibition, Stouffville, ON, 2020

  • Best Portrait, Paint Ontario, Grand Bend, ON, 2020

  • TD Wealth Management Prize Finalist, Midland, ON, 2018

  • Kingston Prize Finalist, Kingston, ON, 2017

  • First Prize, Figureworks Exhibit, Ottawa, 2016

  • Award of Merit, RHGA Juried Exhibit, Richmond Hill ON, 2016

  • Cherry Carnon Award, Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, 2015

  • Salt Spring National Art Prize Finalist, Salt Spring Island B.C., 2015

  • Jurors’ Choice Award, Headwaters Arts Festival, 2014

  • Artists' Choice Award, Headwaters Arts Festival, 2014

  • Jurors’ Choice Award, Headwaters Arts Festival, 2013

  • Artists' Choice Award, Headwaters Arts Festival, 2013

  • Juror’s Choice Award, South Simcoe Arts Council Juried Art Show, 2012

  • Juror’s Choice Award, Headwaters Arts Festival, 2003

  • Mayor’s Annual Purchase Award, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, 1999

  • Best of Show, Lakeshore Through the Eyes of the Artist Exhibition, 1998

  • Finalist, The Artist’s Magazine Annual Art Exhibition, 1998

Grants and Residencies

  • The Arctic Circle Residency, 2023

  • King Family Bursary from the Georgian Bay Land Trust, 2022

  • Theano Point Residency, Lake Superior, 2020

  • OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant, 2018

  • Ontario Arts Council Project Grant, 2017

  • OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant, 2017

  • Labverde Amazon Residency, Brazil, 2017

  • OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant, 2012

  • Ontario Arts Council Project Grant, 2010

  • Reed T. Cooper Bursary 2009

  • OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant, 2007

  • Ontario Arts Council Project Grant, 2000

Recent Articles of Interest

Education

  • 1989-1993 Honours Bachelor of Arts, Film Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario

  • 1988-1989 Fine Arts, York University, Toronto, Ontario

Recent Showings

2024

  • Scottish Portrait Prize finalist, Glasgow Scotland

  • A View From Above: Painting the Svalbard Archipelago, solo exhibit at Lagom Gallery in Creemore ON

  • Rose Island Specimen Project, solo exhibit at Quest Gallery in Midland ON

  • Tradition Transformed, Orillia Museum of Art and History, Orillia, ON

  • Ojibway Club Art Exhibit, Pointe au Baril ON

  • Taylor Statten Bursary Fund Art Exhibit, Toronto ON

2023

  • Salt Spring National Art Prize finalist, Salt Spring Island BC

  • Call to Action #83 Art Project, Orillia, ON

  • Creemore Festival of the Arts

  • Ojibway Club Art Exhibit, Pointe au Baril ON

2022

  • Creemore Festival of the Arts

  • 60 years of the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, at Market Gallery in Toronto

  • “Changing Waters” Etobicoke Assembly Hall

  • Ojibway Club Art Exhibit, Pointe au Baril ON

  • Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival, Parrsboro NS

  • “Solemn Land,” the Untamed Things artists paint Algoma, at Nottawa General / Coventry Studio, Collingwood ON

  • Art Gallery of Hamilton Art Sale

2021

  • Carmichael Exhibit at Orillia Museum of Art and History      

  • "The Peace of Wild Things." - group exhibition in Creemore ON

  • Ojibway Club Art Exhibit, Pointe au Baril ON

  • “Solemn Land: Exploring the Montreal River” - group exhibition at Double Door Gallery, Barrie ON

  • Quest Art's TD Thor Wealth Management Juried Exhibition, Midland ON

  • 43rd Annual Visual Arts Mississauga Juried Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga

2020

  • Ontario Society of Artists Juried Exhibition

  • Woodstock Art Gallery's Annual Juried Exhibit, Woodstock ON

  • Faces and Places of Ontario, at the Lambton Heritage Museum in Grand Bend ON

  • Latcham Gallery's Annual Juried Exhibition

  • AGH Art Sale at the Art Gallery of Hamilton

  • Ojibway Club Art Exhibit, Pointe au Baril ON

  • Visual Arts Mississauga Juried Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga

  • The Artist Project, Toronto ON

  • Thames Art Gallery Juried Exhibition in Chatham ON

  • Taylor Statton Bursary Exhibit, Toronto ON

Collections

  • Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie, Ontario

  • University of Toronto, Department of Continuing Studies

  • City of Toronto Archives

  • Venturer Electronics, Markham, Ontario

  • Mad River Golf Club, Creemore, Ontario

  • Buchanon Fairways Golf Club, Drymen, Scotland

  • Braestone Golf Club, Orillia, Ontario