Born in Dumfries, Scotland, Peter Quinn cannot remember a time when he did not paint or draw. He attended Glasgow School of Art from 1982-1987. He graduated with first class honours from the renowned Drawing and Painting Department in 1986, going on to spend a year studying Art History as a postgraduate in Glasgow. From 1987-1990 Quinn had a studio in Glasgow and featured in many mixed exhibitions in Scotland and London.
In 1990 he moved to the northeast of England where he became increasingly involved with Art History and obtained a Ph D in History of Art from the University of Sunderland, where he also teaches. He lives in Newcastle and visits Malta regularly with his Maltese wife Josiette.
His watercolours are of places where he has lived or visited. He is interested in the urban scene, often choosing to make paintings of subjects, which seem at first glance everyday and ordinary. He enjoys paint and colour, seeking in a finished watercolour the same liveliness and immediacy to be found in the sketchbook he always carries with him. Often in his paintings there are figures that seem to be involved in some sort of drama and story. Peter Quinn likes to leave it to the viewers to make up their own minds about what tale is unfolding.
Peter Quinn participated in yearly exhibitions at the RI, RWS, held one-man shows at the Gallagher and Turner Gallery, Newcastle and other British galleries; at Melitensia Art Gallery, Malta in 1997 and 2003 and London 1998.
Peter Quinn has been awarded The John D. Kelly Prize while at Glasgow School of Art in 1983 as the best student of his year; the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship in the Royal Scottish Academy Student Competition of 1986; the Armour Award from the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, for a watercolour entitled Valletta, 1995; the RI, 1999; the Bankside Gallery Daler Rowney First Prize, 2001 and Second Prize, 2004, and elected an associate member of the Royal Watercolour Society during this year. Peter Quinn is exhibiting 51 paintings, mixed media on paper at the Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort, St George’s Bay, St Julian’s. The exhibition is being held in favour of The Salesians of Don Bosco and is open to the public from 9 to 15 November.