"What I like about what I do is that despite the frustrations and risks of self-employment, I am engaged on a daily basis in activities and concerns that matter to me."
Peter Powning
Inspired by nature and motivated by curiosity, Peter Powning creates richly textured works that are metaphorical and mysterious, yet evoke feelings of deep recognition and connection. Fluidly improvised shapes in glass and metal, graceful raku pottery, sublime mixed media wall pieces, totemic outdoor sculptures and dazzling architectural glass - all display an astonishing convergence of skill and artistry.
Powning's pieces evolve from experimentation with concepts and materials, and he says he likes work that evokes a sense of discovery or a new perspective. He describes some of his work as having the feel of an artifact: "an emotional artifact made solid, a cultural artifact from some future/past, reconstructed or guessed at."
While Powning's award-winning work has been shown in galleries and museums across Canada and around the world, it is imbued with qualities distilled from a life lived close to the silence, space and seasonal rhythms of his home, the fields, forests and shorelines of Canada's East Coast.
Selected works
