We reckon if St Leonards had an ‘artist-in-residence’ it would be Pete. His impressionist paintings of St Leonards, the Bellarine and further afield breathe with light and character. Looking back over his story, it seems he has been moving toward these paintings his whole life.
Pete came to Australia in 1959 at the age of six months from Austria with his parents and at that stage five siblings, two more came later. They spent their first three years living in a Nissen hut at the Bonegilla Migrant Camp in the Victorian High Country. No doubt the oldest were looking after the youngest while their mother had no idea where there were, ‘missing for hours’ playing and swimming at the nearby Hume Weir. You can’t help but wonder if Pete’s love of the outdoors – now expressed through his paintings – began here.
They moved from the camp to a small town nearby where his parents had purchased a farm growing apples and potatoes. After grade six at the twelve pupil primary school he went to Beechworth High. But when at the age of twelve his parents separated and his father moved back to Europe, the rest of the family moved around, with Pete attending schools in Wangaratta, Corryong and Wodonga before leaving home at age eighteen and going to live with an older sister in Melbourne.
His brother in-law got him a job as a pattern maker with a small company making shoe components. His skills and interest were obviously noticed and after six months he started at Collingwood Tech in pattern making and shoe design. He kept working his way up and growing his skills in the women’s shoe industry, both at larger and boutique companies in Collingwood and Fitzroy.
He met his wife Sue who was working in accounts when they were both trainees at the same shoe company. Their first date was chaperoned by her mother and father, a memorable occasion as Pete, keen to impress proclaimed he would ‘shout’ everyone’s dinner. The bill came to almost twice his weekly apprenticeship pay and $20 more than he had in his pocket. Sue’s father paid the rest, jokingly reminded him of it for years, and let them have their second date unaccompanied. They married in 1982 and moved to Geelong, got jobs in another shoe company, and had two children. They built a house in Clifton Springs, then Drysdale and another nearby, before moving into Geelong when the children were teenagers, this time renovating an older house. They returned to the Bellarine ten years ago and St Leonards two years ago where they have built another house, to ‘break the boredom of covid’.
When the manufacture of shoes in Geelong ‘folded in 2001’ Peter took the package offered and bought a mowing business, but after two years he was worn out. He took up other jobs; making power-heads for caravan parks for eight years and then another twelve as grounds keeper and maintenance at a school before winding out on three days per week. To supplement the earlier mowing income, Pete started ‘jockeying’ for a wedding photographer, joined a camera club, learnt as much as he could and later set up his own business as a wedding photographer which lasted for twelve years , with Sue as his able assistant. He ‘loved it.’ He gave up wedding photography four years ago. As a ‘jockey’ for the wedding photographer, it was Pete’s job to ‘look for the light’ in gardens and other locations for the wedding photos. This became a valuable lesson for the painting he was soon to return to after forty years. Photography trained him to ‘look for the light’.
Apart from building a house in St Leonards, Pete found he had time to spare in his transition from work. He picked up pencils and charcoal ‘bought up everything in the shop’ and started drawing again. A friend encouraged him to take up water colors and lent him some paint and brushes, while he looked up lessons about the process on YouTube. He liked it and went back to the shop to buy everything, only to learn he needed very little. He has a few spares. Painting he says ‘is a whole new ball game’. He attended a couple of workshops at The Mill in Fyansford and the Frame Factory and kept practicing, at a rate of ‘a painting a day.’ As he loved photography he was initially painting from photos he took of the coast and wildlife which meant ‘more new camera equipment’. The Western Treatment Plant is his favourite for bird watching and photography.
Then a friend suggested plein air painting. Pete describes the processes of building the color and scene up from the distant to the foreground, of playing with light and leading the eye with great enthusiasm. He continues to improve his techniques and wants to paint in the impressionist style which means learning to ‘loosen’ the grip on his exacting pattern-maker discipline. He loves the feeling of ‘being grounded and connected to where you are painting, to be in the moment, highly attuned and at peace.’ He is always finding out about Australian and contemporary artists and connecting with others and learning from them. From his friend in Launceston Rod Gardener he is learning to ‘sketch like you care, and paint like you don’t (care).
Pete’s paintings of familiar St Leonards scenes, the beach, boats, pub, jetty and foreshore, as well as the Bellarine countryside (and Drysdale lake) and city streets, are a joy to behold. He really does know how to capture the moment, the sense of place and the little bit of magic we all know lives here.
You can see more of Pete’s paintings on Instagram petermaz1323/#
Humans in St Leonards 