Artist's Statement
I am working on a series of paintings called “Throwing the Bones.” They are a culmination of my over forty years of painting experience, and life experiences. I refer to these paintings as figurative and expressionistic abstractions. I equate the paintings with existentialism in literature, and jazz in music. I am trying to avoid formula, each painting, unique in its own time and space. Improvisational, like jazz; but not necessarily sounding off the previous painting. Color and color relationships as well as spatial composition and balance are key concerns. It is less about applying to surface and more about pulling the picture out of the canvas, letting the collective unconsciousness surface. There is a primitive quality in the paintings as well as a sophistication. Yin and yang. I want to keep the rich tradition of painting alive. Recently, during a surge in my painting, I became aware of a change taking place. Soon after I moved, as if through a veil, from west to east. My paintings crossed over and became less forced, more effortless. Broken shackles. Free to paint and do whatever moves me. I want my paintings to be a visual and intellectual adventure.
(b. 1937, Mexico City)
PETER ONSTAD was born in Mexico City and grew up in San Francisco. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute from 1963 to 1967, studying with Bay Area figurative painters, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, and Bruce McGaw. Onstad left the Art Institute to live and work in New York. Upon returning to San Francisco, Alvin Light, then head of the graduate program, invited him into the program on a full scholarship. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973.
In the following years, he was part of the artistic and literary scene in San Francisco’s North Beach where many poets, writers and artists gathered. His work at this time consisted of collages and mixed-media constructions made with found objects. In the early 1980s, he began making large abstract paintings but returned to the figure after a few years. In the late 80's his personal collection of works burned in the Entela hotel fire.
In the 1990's Onstad moved to a remote mountaintop in Willits, CA, where he built a painting studio, and designed a system of living off the grid. For about a decade he withdrew from art society to paint, exploring both the external world and his subconscious. His work now leans towards the purely metaphysical and abstract, while retaining referential glimpses.
Peter Onstad's work has been exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center, the Legion of Honor, the Richmond Art Center, the Hall of Flowers, the Diego Rivera Gallery, the San Francisco Art Festivals, and private collections.
A painter's painter, Peter Onstad has vigorously eschewed the gallery system, preferring curated and public exhibits. His works have been exhibited for decades in various North Beach haunts, including solo shows at the renowned Vesuvio's Cafe and at the famous Gino & Carlo's, where his portrait of the bar, painted from outside, has hung for decades as a focal point.
Peter Onstad now lives in rural Mendocino County.
Peter Onstad