Oil on Canvas, 36 × 48
Oil on Canvas · French Impressionism · California Impressionism · Modern Impressionism
These are scenes most people walk past without a second glance. I paint them because I believe they deserve to be seen.
To hold onto what's here before it's gone — that's the impulse behind every painting.
Charcoal & Graphite Studies
Selected Juried & Invitational Shows
January 31 – March 23, 2026
September 5 – 28, 2025
Celebrating Santa Monica's 150th anniversary, Local featured 15 artists from Santa Monica and the Greater Los Angeles area.
July 2025
June 2025
Selected for Pinned Instagram Promotion
June 2025
January 25 – March 29, 2025
I work in oils on canvas and charcoal figure studies, rooted in the traditions of the French and California Impressionists. I live and paint in Los Angeles.
For five years, I told myself I'd get back to painting. I studied light through photography, scouted locations, developed my eye — but always found a reason to wait. In late 2019, I was hospitalized with what doctors initially believed was cancer. After two biopsies, a Whipple procedure, and a nine-month recovery, it turned out to be a rare autoimmune condition. But the weeks I spent in that hospital — watching people on the cancer ward fight for their lives — changed something in me permanently. I understood, in a way I hadn't before, that time is not guaranteed.
When the world reopened, I stopped waiting. I enrolled at the Kline Academy of Fine Art in Los Angeles and committed myself fully to the craft. I haven't looked back.
What I paint are moments — small, fleeting, easily missed. A house with a single porch light glowing. Lilies sitting on still water. A figure at the edge of the ocean, lost in thought. A skater passing through. These are scenes most people walk past without a second glance. I stop, photograph them, and bring them to the canvas because I believe they deserve to be seen.
Some of my work includes figures caught in quiet, unguarded moments — private enough that the viewer feels like a witness to something they stumbled upon. Other paintings are pure landscape, capturing light and atmosphere as they exist for only a few minutes before shifting. Both come from the same impulse: to hold onto what's here before it's gone.
My influences include Sorolla, Guy Rose, the California Impressionists, and the quiet narrative stillness of Edward Hopper. Among contemporary painters, I admire Glenn Dean, Michael Obermeyer, and Russell Case. But my truest influence is the simple act of paying attention — something I no longer take for granted.
For inquiries about available work, exhibitions, or commissions:
peternunnery@gmail.com