Peter Marsh Artist
I am writing my autobiography. It is a long process, trying to filter out what is not important to the development of an artist. I include in this much smaller biography very little, but I think it may be important to you with respect to understanding what is displayed on this web page. You may leave knowing at least something about my life and my art. Doing one's work in a vacuum is not, for me, something to be desired, so I do appreciate your genuine interest. Thank you.
I was born in 1943 in London England and immigrated to Toronto in 1957, which means I went to High School and University here before becoming a teacher in 1965. I was the Art Director at Wexford Collegiate School for The Arts for my teaching life, and if I counted every year that I taught, including in ‘retirement’ it would amount to 43 years. I have painted all my life and held many one-man exhibitions. This was done in Toronto when I was young, and then in the summer, at our cottage, in Parry Sound, on Little Whitefish Lake, during the Annual Art Tour. That went on for more than a decade in the eighties and nineties. All the while I have been exhibiting in Toronto in various exhibitions. My work is in many public and private collections, including His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and also the former Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean. Over the years I have exhibited in an innumerable collection of joint exhibitions.
I have appreciated the various awards I have been given over the years. I am a ‘Member Emeritus’ of The Scarborough Arts Council for my initial work there in the 1980's as Vice-President of the Arts Council. I have received awards from both Scarborough Recreation and The Ontario Municipal Recreation Association for work associated with the development of Arts Councils. I have been awarded The President's Award from Mensa Canada. I was president of The Humphrey and Seguin Arts Councils for 10 years, and I was also a Municipal Counsellor for 12 years, undefeated. I have sat on the board of many organizations. I have been president of our national watercolour society The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour from 2009-2011 and sat on the board for 16 years. I am an elected member of the CSPWC, The Society of Canadaian Artists, and The Ontario Society of Artists. My watercolours have been selected 6 times for our annual national watercolour exhibitions ‘Open Water’, and numerous national ‘members’ juried exhibitions. I have been personally invited to act as a juror for many of our Ontario artist's societies. I am a person of diverse interests and I think that is reflected in my artwork.
Although I haven't done much pottery for a number of years as a result of some health set-backs I have done a lot of raku pottery. The pyromanic qualities of a raku firing make it very exciting and somewhat dangerous but the random 'god did this' effects are often spectacular and encouraging. Although one has to be careful about self-immolation, the easy way to avoid this is to get your wife to throw on the combustibles!
So there it is, my life in one page, my apologies for being so wordy.