PETER STERLING
“I was taught a respect and love for the natural world. I discovered a renewed interest in the visual arts about 16 years ago as an alternative therapy. The social aspects are very rewarding as I continue to feed my desire to learn. Art is everywhere and in everything in my daily life.”
- Peter Sterling
Peter Sterling was born in Rhode Island and spent his early years in Newport before completing his primary education across Tennessee, New Jersey, and California. From a young age, he expressed his creativity through acting, leatherwork, building wooden boxes, cartooning, and occasionally crafting birdhouses.
He pursued studies in Communications and Liberal Arts at California State University, the Community College of Rhode Island, and the University of Massachusetts. His artistic journey continued with 15 years of apprenticeship under couture fashion designer Francesco Di Russo (also known as Ches Couturier), followed by three years working as an apprentice and cutter for a custom apparel and accessories manufacturer.
Since 1985, Sterling has worked in the design industry. He began his professional career as a showroom assistant for Full Swing, a Newport-based interior design and textile firm. He later relocated to Boston, where he worked for a custom drapery and interior fashions company before launching his own practice as a freelance interior decorator. Throughout his career, he also maintained parallel roles in the hospitality industry—as a waiter, bartender, and caterer—accumulating over three decades of experience.
In 2009, Sterling returned to visual art, picking up a paintbrush for the first time and embracing what he describes as Evolutionary Expressionism. He considers all of his paintings to be self-portraits, reflections of his inner journey. In addition to his ongoing work as an interior and fashion couturier, he became actively involved in the art community, joining several regional art guilds to deepen his engagement and continue his artistic development.
Sterling served six years on the Board of Directors for the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Newport County, where he also hosted and produced their television program Art View, and worked as an event planner. He now divides his time between summers in New England and the rest of the year in the Florida Keys.
He volunteers at the Crane Point Hammock Museum & Nature Center, serves as President of the Florida Keys Watercolor Society, and is a member of the Development Committee for the Cape School of Art. A published poet and passionate nature photographer, he brings a zest for life to all of his creative pursuits—including the occasional birdhouse he still enjoys building.
