Peter Thompson received the M.F.A. degree from Yale University and the B.F.A. degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. His paintings have been exhibited nationally including the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York City.

In addition to his position as Professor of Art at the University of Kansas, Thompson has held a number of administrative positions: Chair of the Department of Art 1968 -1975; Associate Dean of the School of Fine Arts 1975 - 1980; Dean of the School of Fine Arts 1986 - 1999. In his administrative role, he was instrumental in the planning and construction of the Art & Design building, the Lied Center for the Performing Arts, the Bales Organ Recital Hall, and the rehearsal and library addition to Murphy Hall.
As part of the unique Bales Organ Recital Hall project, Thompson designed both the ornamental woodwork for the 35 foot pipe organ and the towering stained glass windows in the rear of the hall.

Over the years Thompson has been primarily a painter. He practiced process-painting, often making small marks on a surface until it was transformed by the density of texture and complex colors. The legacy of that approach is that his photographic work accrues through process. He builds a body of work with one simple impulse and gesture at a time. For Thompson, a photographic subject is simply something that is noticed and acknowledged, and his sure use of faculties and tools crystalizes it.

Thompson is a deft imagemaker, steeped in color theory and possessing a mature modernist sensibility. He uses the camera to capture changing conditions in the everyday world—the way light falls on a textured wall or patio chair becomes mysterious by virtue of its fleeting nature and interesting due to its formal beauty.

The stark line of a Kansas horizon is also appealing for formal reasons—structure, color, relationships of scale—but becomes an emblem of a spectacular human capability: Awareness. This new body of work demonstrates a way to see—a process of looking—as well as offering compelling objects of art.

7" x 7"
matted size=12 x 12, $85

6" x 10"
matted size=11 x 14, $85

11" x 17"
matted & framed=19 x 25, $300