I was born in January 1928 in Washington, DC to a humble family with
no art background. Growing up in a sleepy southern town that DC was before World War II
in a lower-middle class residential area with vacant lots, woods, brick yard and pond
was a wonderful way to grow up. A ninth grade Home Room teacher encouraged my drawings
from comic books, especially Prince Valiant, and this led me to major in art at
Tech High School. My 11th and 12th grade teacher, Miss Gertrude Brown, a spinster old
maid, encouraged me in my art and I flourished as an art student in watercolor. In the
room there was a print of an Edward Hopper watercolor of an old white house that just
fascinated me. Also, a Paul Cezanne still life spoke strongly to me. I sold my first
watercolors while I was at Tech. That was a thrill.
After a little over a year in the US Coast Guard I had the GI Bill to help me and I
went to George Washington University majoring in art. I was the first in my extended
family to attend college. It was a big deal. I thank God over and over for the GI Bill --
it changed my life. My family could not have sent me to school. I also drove a
taxi cab in DC between and after classes to support my young family. (We had married
after I had finished one year of school.) My instructors included Richard Lakey, Eugene
Weiz, and Charles Forsythe. In college, besides art courses (primarily painting and
drawing), I took education courses. After graduation, I was accepted as a
green-as-grass art teacher at Aberdeen Junior and Senior High School, Aberdeen, Maryland in
1953. (Aberdeen alumnist Cal Ripkin of the Baltimore Orioles came much later.)
Three years later I moved to Montgomery County, Maryland to teach 10 years at Northwood HS,
Wheaton, Maryland. While there I went back to George Washington University and the Corcoran (where I received a first
prize in Advanced Design) and earned my Master of Fine Arts in painting. At this time I began to show
and win first prizes for my work in the DC area. I was also president of the Montgomery
County Art Council. During that time, I had arranged stimulating, innovative programs
such as an expert from the National Gallery of Art and a film maker who had done an
award-winning film on Van Gogh to come and show the film and talk to us.
After earning my MFA, I wanted to teach art at the college level and was offered a
position as instructor at Edinboro State College in little Edinboro, Pennsylvania, a small town near
Lake Erie among rolling hills and farm land. We did not know about the 10 feet of snow
yearly. We purchased an old farm house on a dirt road and lived a good life there. I
taught Drawing, Basic 2-D Design, and Painting.
After a few years, I became assistant chairman of the Art Department, in which capacity
I served the department 10 - 15 years. During this time we became a university, and we
developed an MFA program in which I also taught graduate painting courses as
well as serving as an advisor to graduate students. During this time I was accepted in
large national shows at Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, New York; Butler Institute,
Youngstown, Ohio; the Museum of Art in Springfield, Massachusetts; etc.
I developed a painting workshop that was a part of the Wallops Island Science
Consortium, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I taught the class for 3 weeks in the
summer for a number of years. Two summers I took the class to the Maine coast for three
weeks where we lived in a rustic 4-H camp near Camden, Maine. The students and I worked on
location and had a great time.
I retired as a full professor at the end of 1989 and moved out of the Pennsylvania snow belt to the
eastern panhandle of West Virginia near family and Washington, DC. We built a studio
onto our house, which included a small gallery to show my work. I have been active with the
Boarman Art Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, including being artist-in-residence; in Front
Royal, Virginia at the Blue Ridge Art Council (BRAC) and at the Ice House Gallery and co-op
in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. I have continued to win awards since moving here.
I'm 73 -- but there are still developments and ideas I want to express in my
paintings. Someday, I would like to try to sum up what I've learned about art in
some glorious, emotional, expressive paintings with glowing colors.
 Wayne Peterson
June 12, 2001
Professional Life:
Wayne Peterson recieved a BA and an MFA in painting from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Further
postgraduate studies include work at the
Maryland Institute of Art, Cleveland
Institute of Art, University of
Buffalo, and Allegheny College
in Pennsylvania. He taught art for 36 years -- the latter 23 years at Edinboro University of
Pennsylvania, where he taught painting, watercolor, drawing and 2-D design. He
retired from EUP in December of 1989 and is now a Professor of Art Emeritus.
Award Highlights Include:
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| Best
Landscape |
Evans Run Art Assoc. Show |
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| First Prize |
Meadville Council of the Arts Show |
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| First Prize |
Religious Art Festival |
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| First Prize |
Washington DC Landscape Club Members Show |
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| First Prize |
Montgomery County Art Assoc Fall Show |
| First Prize |
Cancer Benefit Art Show |
| First Prize |
Southwest Redevelopment Art Fair |
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| First Prize |
Montgomery County Art Assoc Fall Show |
| First Prize |
Rockville Art League Spring Show |
| First Prize |
Cancer Benefit Art Show |
| First Prize |
Corcoran School of Art Advanced Design Competition |
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Show Highlights Include:
Over 200 One- and
Two-Person Shows.
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Memberships:
- Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA)
- Morgan Arts Council (MAC) Ice House Artists
Coop.
- Blue Ridge Arts Council (BRAC)
- Boarman Art Center
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Personal:
Wayne Peterson is a native of Washington, DC, and as such is a serious Washington Redskins fan. (Go 'Skins!)
Wayne has always enjoyed traveling, and has done so extensively in the US. More
recently he has expanded his travels to include Europe and the British Isles. Wayne
also enjoys golfing, gardening, reading, and continuing his dialogue with paint.
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