Peter Pettegrew

Archive for August, 2008

Just about everybody has heard of Florida landscape painter Peter Pettegrew by now, but have you ever thought of him as one of South’s famous Highwayman? Alright, that’s a little bit of a stretch, but he is– in his own way– very much like a lone Highwayman painting on location all over Florida , Georgia and the Carolinas. In Pettegrew’s early days of selling his work, it was “the old paint ‘em and sell ‘em” right from his car, and later from a big van his agent Jim Cournoyer owned. And yes, sometimes the paint was still wet when the sale was made!

When Peter hooked up with Jim in 1993, Jim took over the selling so Peter could devote more time to hittin’ the highways and back roads finding new subjects with the “right place with the right light.”

Although Pettegrew’s style has more of a Hudson River School feel with many layers of paint– more like Beanie Backus (one of Peter’s favorites and a Highwaymen mentor), in fact, his work has a lot in common with the Highwaymen. All of the Highwaymen artists are largely self taught, sharing ideas and learning with fellow painters, occasionally doing workshops together and separately.

Here is Pettegrew with Sam Newton who, along with brothers Len and Harold Newton, are among the best known original Highwayman. Peter took Sam’s workshop and they had much to talk about… a lot of years and stories on the road painting in Florida.

Peter’s favorite time to work is always what is called the “golden time,” just like Beanie Backus and most of the Highwayman.

“My favorite times of day were late afternoon or early morning, because the light is more alive then. I like the effect of light on the color of an object, and how light differs from day-to-day, season-to-season, place-to-place.”
Beanie Backus

JC

Peter writes:

My wife’s parents live in a small, lakeside town called Bigfork in Northwest Montana during the summer months. Bigfork is a beautiful place, situated between several rugged mountain ranges and at the convergence of the Swan River and Flathead Lake, the longest lake in the Western United States. Jack Hannah has an incredible home on a rock out-cropping overlooking the lake and author Robert Ludlum’s home is at the end of the street that my in-laws live on, overlooking Flathead River. We spent time on both rivers and Flathead Lake, taking in the sweeping views as you paddle, sail or float your way along. A short drive away is Glacier National Park, where I had the chance to do some sketching and photographing on the snow-capped mountain top near the summit, where the summer air is clean and crisp – a far cry from Florida’s summer humidity.

Another great way to get around was by trail bikes, where we were able to cross into town by way of the logging roads cut across the mountain ridge. We found galleries filled with exceptional landscape paintings including stone lithos by noted Montana artist Russell Chatham, an influence on my choice of subject matter since the mid 1980’s. Another surprise of the trip was participating in a sailboat regatta on Placid Lake with a mixed group of boating fanatics – a race that produced several strong gales and flipped a few of the participants into the drink. On the final day, we hiked into an area known for it’s wild huckleberries and came across a motherlode of the sweet tasting goodies. As it turned out, the late winter had been ideal for producing such an unusual bounty and we were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I think that could be said of the whole trip in general – Montana’s such a beautiful place, you can hardly go wrong.