Peter A. Nisbet Biography

Peter A. Nisbet Biography

Peter Allen Nisbet was born in North Carolina in 1948 and began the study of painting at age ten. He has been a student of fine art for thirty-five years, beginning in water colors and proceeding to oils by age 25. P. A. Nisbet received a liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina followed by a commission in the United States Navy.

He served as a line officer at sea with a ten month tour of duty in Vietnam. During that time P. A. Nisbet was appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to serve as Director of Art Services for the Navy's Office of Information. Following Naval Service in 1974 he commenced a free-lance commercial art business providing graphic design and illustration for over twenty-five national organizations.

In 1980 P. A. Nisbet located in the Southwest and began painting landscapes. Since then he has completed and sold hundreds of paintings which are derived from experiences throughout the world. P. A. Nisbet has traveled to such remote places as the South Pole and China, but his preferred locale for painting is in the deserts of the Southwest and Mexico.

Grants and Other Involvements:

  • 1995-96 - National Science Foundation, Artists and Writers Program Grant for travel to Antarctica
  • 1996-97 - Artist Advisory Panel, National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C.
  • 1987 - Arts for the Parks, Jackson, Wyoming, Winner Southwest Region Award
  • 2009 - Grand Canyon Modern Masters Invitational, Kolb Studio, Grand Canyon, AZ
  • 2009 - Henry Farny Award for Best Painting "Morning on the Colorado" 4th Annual Quest for the West Art Show and Sale, Eiteljorg Museum, IN
  • 2012 - Artists' Choice Award, Quest for the West, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
  • 2012 - Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Award, Quest for the West, Eiteljog Museum, Indianapolis, IN
  • John Chafee, Senator, Rhode Island
  • Admiral and Mrs. Elmo Zumwalt
  • Duke and Duchess of Bedford, U.K.
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C.
  • National Science Foundation, McMurdo Station, Antarctica
  • The Forbes Collection
  • Eugene B. Adkins Collection
  • Museum of the West
  • William K. Hartmann, Author
  • Michael Mann, Director
  • Reynolds Price, Author
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, Author
  • Gary Shandling, Actor/Comedian
  • Over 500 private individuals 
  • 1986 - Group exhibition, Pioneer's Museum Show, Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • 1988 - The White House, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
  • 1988 - Museum of New Mexico, Biennial Invitational Exhibition, Santa Fe
  • 1989 - University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Landscape Invitational
  • 1989 - Santa Fe Festival of the Arts, Spring Invitational Exhibition
  • 1991 - Albuquerque Museum of Art Invitational Exhibition
  • 1997 - Group exhibition, "Leading the West" Medicine Man Gallery
  • 1998 - Group exhibition, "The City Series " Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, IA
  • 1998 - Group exhibition, "Canyons of the Colorado" Idaho Museum of Natural History
  • 1998: Group exhibition, " Realism in the American West" U. of Wyoming Museum of Art
  • 2000 - Group exhibition "A Century of Grand Canyon Art" Grand Canyon Association, AZ
  • 2000-02 - Group and Solo exhibitions, Medicine Man Gallery
  • 2004 - Grand Canyon Artists Exhibition, Medicine Man Gallery
  • 1004 - Gulf of California Artists Exhibition, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
  • 2006-07 - Grand Canyon: From Dream to Icon, Tucson Museum of Art, AZ
  • 2007 - Arizona: A Millennium of Arizona Art, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2010 - Quest for the West, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
  • 2011 - Plein Air on the Rim, Kolb Studio, Grand Canyon, AZ
  • 2012 - Landscapes of the West, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
  • 2012 - 4th Annual Small Works Show and Sale, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
  • 2012 - Journeys Out of the West, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2017 "25th Anniversary Celebration" Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2019 - "Along the Distant Mesa: An Homage to Maynard Dixon" Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2019 - "New Works" Group Show, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2019 - "Quest for the West," Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
  • 2020 - "Quest for the West," Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, I
  • 1983 - The New Mexican
  • 1986 - The Flagstaff, AZ
  • 1986 - The Coastland Times, Elizabeth City, NC
  • 1986 - The Artist Magazine
  • 1986 - Arizona Highways
  • 1986 - Professional Surveyor
  • 1987 - The University Report, University of North Carolina
  • 1987 - Post Register, Idaho Falls, ID
  • 1987 - The Morning Call, Allentown, PA
  • 1987 - Albuquerque Journal, NM
  • 1987 - New Times, Phoenix, AZ
  • 1987 - Southwest Art
  • 1987 - Arizona Highways
  • 1987 - The First National Park Stamp
  • 1987-1988 - The Santa Fe Concert Association
  • 1987-88 - Winter Art Today
  • 1988 - Midwest Art
  • 1988 - Light by Lucy Willis, Quatro Publishing, Inc.
  • 1989 - The New Mexican, Santa Fe, NM
  • 1989 - Defenders of Wildlife
  • 1989 - The Artist Magazine
  • 1989 - Focus, Santa Fe
  • 1989 - General Motors Friends
  • 1989 - Southwest Profile
  • 1990 - The New Mexican Journal North
  • 1991 - Earthtreks
  • 1991 - Architectural Digest
  • 1991 - The Hubble Space Telescope - An Artist's View, NASA
  • 1992 - The Hartford Courant, Hartford, CT
  • 1994 - From the Ashes Interview, Phoenix, AZ
  • 1994 - Artists of the Southwestby by Arnold Skolnick, Chameleon Press
  • 1994 - “From the Ashes,” The Valley Arts Review Phoenix, AZ
  • 1997 - Southwest Art
  • 1997 - Leading the West, 100 Painters and Sculptors by Donald J. Hagerty, Northland Press (Cover, Chapter Cover/Landscapes)
  • 1997 - The Age of Exploration, NASA (Cover)
  • 1997 - Antarctica (Cover) Bantam Books, New York
  • 1998 - Antarctica (Cover) by Harper Collins, London
  • 1998 - The Majesty of the Grand Canyon-150 Years in Art by Skolnick
  • 1998 - Elements of Literature 2000 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York
  • 1998 - NASA & The Exploration of Space by Roger Launius, Stewart,Tabori,and Chang, New York
  • 1998 - The Albuquerque Journal, NM
  • 1988 - The Santa Fean, NM
  • 1999 - Southwest Art, In Search of the Spiritual
  • 1999 - Contemporary American Oil Painting by Jilin Fine Arts Publishing House, China
  • 2000 - Tucson Citizen, Tucson, AZ
  • 2000 - The Grand Canyon River Expedition
  • 2008 - Western Art Collector, P. A. Nisbet: At Water's Edge
  • 2009 - Western Art Collector, Grandeur of the West 
  • 2017 - Western Art Collector, November issue
  • 2018 - "Maynard Dixon's American West: Along the Distant Mesa" by Mark Sublette
  • 2019 - Western Art Collector, June issue
  • 2019 - Western Art Collector, November issue
  • 2020 - Art of the West, November/December
  • 2020/2021 - Western Art and Architecture, December/January
  • 2021 - Art of the West, May/June, Feature Article