Peter di Gesu
Peter di Gesu (b. Los Angeles) is a Nova Scotia–based painter whose work explores the interplay of form, colour, light, and space. Educated at the San Francisco Art Institute (BFA, MFA), his practice bridges influences from Monet and Seurat to the debates of abstract expressionism and hard-edge painting. Using photographs and sketches as points of departure, he creates lyrical abstractions that transcend place, evoking the expansiveness of earth and sky. His work is held in private and corporate collections.Peter di Gesu was born in Los Angeles, lived in the southwest U.S. for many years, and moved to Nova Scotia in the late 80’s.
Di Gesu received a BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was inspired by the California landscape painters and the warring art factions of the abstract expressionists and the hard-edge painters. Di Gesu’s paintings are also influenced by his love of Monet and Seurat.
While his paintings are often inspired by his own landscape photographs and sketches, they are abstracts about the relationship of form, colour, space, and light. The photos and sketches act as a point of departure, with the finished painting bearing little resemblance to the original place. In the end, what matters is how the colors, forms, lines, and illusion of space work together on the canvas. He is not trying to express anything in particular, as the beauty of the earth doesn’t need an expression. In his paintings, he hopes to communicate the connection with the earth and sky, the vastness and the expansiveness of space, that pulls us beyond our own limited perceptions.
Elissa Bannard of Billie Magazine in reviewing a show of Di Gesu’s work at the former Studio 21 in Halifax, writes: “Standing before Di Gesu’s serene oil paintings in soft colours of pink, gold, green, and blue is an eye-opening soul-stirring experience.”
Di Gesu now lives in the Town of Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia, with his wife and two cats. He paints full time in his studio there. Di Gesu is currently represented in galleries in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ottawa and Denver, Colorado.
