Peter Adams

Summer Swimming Hole along the Ventura River; Ojai, California

2023

Contemporary American artist Peter Adams is esteemed for his beautiful Impressionist paintings. He uses oil paints to create vivid landscapes and figurative works that saturate the canvas with color. Adams is known for combining the Western artistic tradition with Eastern influences picked up from his extensive travels.

Adams was born and raised in California. He studied at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California; the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles; the Instituto de Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and the Lukits Academy of Fine Arts in Los Angeles. 

Four of Adams’s seven years at the Luktis Academy were spent as an apprentice to Theodore Lukits, a renowned Impressionist painter. He was also introduced to Chinese porcelains and sculptures, which sparked an interest in Asian art that spurred him to travel. In 1981, he traveled and painted unescorted through the People’s Republic of China, becoming the first American artist to do so. He was also the only American artist to travel with the mujahideen rebels of Afghanistan in 1987.

Adams became the president of the California Art Club in 1993, a role he has served in ever since. Established in 1909, the organization only had 80 members at the time. Under his leadership, the membership has grown to around 3,000.

In 2007, he earned the John J. Geraghty Award for advancing traditional fine art as well as the gold medal for the best painting from his fellow members at the California Art Club. In 2009, Fine Art Connoisseur presented Adams with a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Adams is represented by American Legacy Fine Arts in Pasadena. His works are in the collections of the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, California; the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California; the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California; and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Peter Adams’s paintings.