My name is Peter Howarth. Since I was a young child I enjoyed painting and drawing. Coming from a relatively poor background my parents were understandably more concerned that I work in an area that provided a secure income rather than allowed an ‘expression of creative instincts’, a ‘proper job’ as it was termed back then. Through my childhood years as I showed them my various daubings they’d smile condescendingly and say yes that’s lovely for a hobby but art wouldn’t make a ‘proper job’. Fortunately I enjoyed sciences as well and have worked in science based fields all my life.

Home and family commitments and the increasing demands of the ‘proper ‘ job meant that even as a hobby my art retreated further into the background. There were occasional forays out, for example producing some illustrations; ok so it was medically based illustrations- sort of combining a ‘proper’ job with art, however a combination of events prompted me to re-examine things.

Not to be morbid in any way but serious health issues in a couple of friends and family made me realise that you only get one shot at it (life that is) so maybe spend some of it doing something that you actually want to do.

The second thing was going digital. I’d seen that Photoshop could be used to produce art but didn’t really understand anything about it. Gathering together the necessary financial and time resources I bought a sufficiently hi-spec laptop, one of those fancy Wacom Cintiq pads, subscribed to Adobe CC Photoshop and ‘enrolled’ in the university of YouTube. Having got together some basic skills I found that I can use the limited time I have for my art really productively so I now do mostly digitally based art with just a little traditional art and can fulfil my lifetime ambition of having an ‘improper’ job.

With the chances of success slim and the road ahead unknown it’s sort of scary and I don’t know how it will go but I think I’ll enjoy it.

BTW for those wondering why the site isn’t called ‘ Peter Howarth Art’ or something like that I grew up in the Pennines and the local stone there is black or gritstone. Sometimes if you don’t know where you are going its good to know where you are from. Gritstone is kind of a mark of my origins (and it sounds cool as well).