Artist Biography
Some notes on the life of Peter Eglington
Peter
was born in the Tweed Shire (between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast ) on
Australia's east coast in 1952 as part of a 4th generation northern New
South Wales farming family. The parents of the first generation born here
were amongst the first white settlers to arrive in the big scrub rainforest
area which at that time was occupied by Aboriginal tribes whose generations
led back into the mists of time.
Peter's first contact with the ocean on a regular basis began as a child
when his father would take him body surfing "out the back" with all the
grown ups.
As with most Australian children of his generation surfing on surf-o-planes
soon followed.
Peter's love of the ocean soon led him to try riding "logs" during the
period of the mid sixties. These had to be "borrowed" from the local surf
club during the week when their owners were at work.
By late 1967 the short board revolution was beginning to unfold in Australia
and he was riding the "Plastic Machines" of that era.
From 1967 until 1973 Peter surfed the point and beach breaks of the
east coast of Australia.
In early 1974 he travelled to Bali and spent that year surfing and painting
in Bali. Within one week of Peter's arrival in Bali he had moved to the
artist's village of Batuan. He was one of only 3 westerners living and
soaking up the traditional Balinese lifestyle of this region. Living with
the artists of this village heavily influenced Peter's future artistic
visions and spiritual direction. These were the early days of uncrowded
Kuta reef and the then beautiful and pristine beach breaks of Kuta and
Legian. Peter also travelled overland through Java and Sumatra as well
as other South East Asian countries during this year.
In
1976 Peter returned to Bali and the village of Batuan with his girlfriend,
and they spent the next 2 years living and travelling throughout the Asian
region. From this period until 1984 Peter continued to travel to dozens
of countries, studying the Art and Spirituality of these cultures. The
then uncrowded and fun reef breaks of Sri Lanka were at the heart of this
spiritual experience for Peter.
In 1985 Peter moved to Aotearoa (New Zealand) where he spent the next
7 years living in the south island, surfing the isolated and uncrowded
waves of the wild west coast as well as Banks Peninsula on the east coast.
During the 1990's Peter returned to his birth place in northern New
South Wales. He currently resides with his 3 children at South Golden Beach,
near Byron Bay.
During the nineties he has made surf trips to the Fijian islands as
well as the islands of the Kingdom of Tonga.
During the entire 4 decades of Peter's surfing journey he has been infatuated
with the spiritual dimension of surfing as a modern Yoga and artform.
During the past 10 years his art has been heavily involved with the
13 moon calendar change peace movement which is striving to bring about
a return to a natural cycle, moon based Calendar.
His
love of surfing as a lifestyle bringing physical health as well as mental-emotional-spiritual
integrity to the lives of all who follow this path continues to deepen
as the wavespell of time unfolds.
In the last few years Peter's art has been attracting the attention
of many individuals worldwide. He is to be one of many Visionary Artists
whose work is soon to appear in "Eyes of the Soul" -exploring inspiration
in Visionary Art and Artists. This book is to be authored by Philip Rubinov-Jacobson,
who teaches the Old Masters technique of oil and tempera painting in European
seminars each summer. The foreword is by Ken Wilbur, Americas foremost
contemporary author integrating transpersonal psychology, theology and
a number of other fields into an integral philosophy.
Peter's original paintings, limited edition prints and posters grace
the walls of homes in Hawaii, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia,
Mexico, England, Germany, Netherlands, Macedonia, France, India, Brazil,
Switzerland, Sweden and Botswana.
Contact the artist here
