who am I?
I’m Peter Ashworth—a California impact artist, adventurer, ocean sailor, ex-corporate CEO, family guy, and relentless seeker of what makes people feel alive. Through bold visual storytelling, I create original wall art, and museum-quality prints for great spaces, that transcends borders, sparks conversations, and stirs the soul.
Whether you call New York, London, Dubai, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai or Sydney home, my work is designed to resonate with anyone who craves the raw, stirring essence of life. New Zealand born, longtime based in iconic Southern California, I produce large-scale original paintings and luxury museum-quality prints that light up gallery walls, transform interiors, and become cherished conversation starters in homes and collections across continents. My art isn’t just décor—it’s a high-voltage experience, a portal into deeper emotional realms for collectors, designers, and art lovers worldwide.
art should move your soul. It should engage, awaken, and stir something real.
why I paint big.
Scale is part of the magic.
People ask why my art is so big. Honestly? Because some feelings don’t fit inside an 8x10.
Large-scale art isn’t meant to be glanced at—it’s meant to be stepped into. When a piece fills your field of vision, it pulls you out of passive looking and into full-body engagement. You may not mentally engage with furniture in a room—but you will with a large-scale, mentally stimulating art piece. You cognitively activate, focus your attention, and spark thought. You engage with it. You feel it.
A big piece makes a statement about who you are and how you think, commanding presence and setting the tone for everything around it. It’s not background adornment; it’s a main feature, a conversation stimulator, a positive radiating energy that defines a unique space.
Collectors tell me their spaces shift when one of my works goes up—conversations spark, emotions stir, people feel alive. That’s the point. My paintings aren’t background décor; they’re the energy, the icing on the cake, the personality statement.
my artwork lives in some of the world’s most inspiring homes and work spaces.
‘art is a feeling’... tied to the human need for meaning
I create to ignite something raw and real, to make you pause, feel, and remember what it means to be alive. Human beings are wired to search for meaning—through relationships, rituals, symbols, and stories. Art speaks directly to that need, bypassing logic and striking the heart first.
That’s why I say “Art is a Feeling.” It’s shorthand for a deeper truth: meaning is not only understood, it is felt. My large-scale works aren’t meant to be passively seen—they’re meant to be experienced. Each piece is a dialogue between canvas and viewer, sparking memories, wonder, and deeper connections.
I don’t create art to match walls. I create my art to mirror humanity, to reflect a million years of human thinking, to present truth, and to remind you that life should be bigger, bolder, and is meant to be truly lived—right here, right now.
your space is your autobiography—what story are you telling?
Your walls don’t just hold up art—they hold pieces of your identity, reflecting your values, memories, and the energy you choose to live in every day.
i want you to feel alive
For those who feel, “this ain’t it,” I walk with you—out of the numb, to discovering true joy and adventure, towards living a Great Big Life with purpose and passion—for what truly moves you.
My mission is simple: to uplift and inspire. My art isn't made to match your couch—it’s made to move your soul.
Every piece I create is an invitation to see the world through renewed curiosity and boundless possibility.
I follow sparks—adventures, human connections, ideas, meaning, light and shadow, and today's social issues—and then channel them deep into the canvas.
Between intention and surrender is where the magic happens.
a lifelong fascination with the human mind
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by how humans think, feel, and process the world. ‘Why do some things truly move us… when other things have no effect at all?’ I’ve studied psychology, neuroscience, and the patterns of human thinking and behavior—not as dry theory, but as a lived exploration of what makes us as humans….. truly feel alive. That obsession shapes my work today, it lives in every element and piece that I create.
Every brushstroke connects to how our brains crave meaning, how our emotions respond to colors and faces, and how primal marks—lines, circles, symbols—tap into something ancient in each of us. My large-scale originals and museum-quality prints are designed to light up the room... and the nervous system. They are designed to mentally engage, to make you stop and think, to create conversation. When a collector tells me a piece ‘feels’ powerful, it’s not an accident—it’s rooted in this lifelong study of how humans think, and how creativity can create a visceral reaction, its the mind and heart.
if you only “like” it, you missed the point—you’re meant to feel it.
If all you do is “like” a piece, you’ve skimmed the surface
and missed its soul. Many people buy art just to fill a wall or match a couch—but that’s decoration, not transformation.
my creative journey
I didn’t choose art—it chose me. From the first time I held a brush, I knew this was my language—even after pursuing the financial rewards of a corporate career for many, many years. Over time, my journey has evolved into painting what can’t be said out loud: collisions of color, unspoken emotions, primal marks that tie us to our past and future.
Since a very young age, I have wondered deeply why some things viscerally move us…. and some just don’t? It has reflected in my journey and my travels, looking at the tiniest details and nuances about what actually moves people. Feeling ‘moved’ by something is a deep core human experience. I am looking for feelings in my art. Mental stimulation. Engagement. People feel ‘alive’ when they are mentally engaged.
That tension is what gives each painting its unique pulse, its presence, its story.
6 collections & series
My work lives in six flagship collections and series, each capturing a different emotional current and style:
- Impact Abstract Series —bold, large-scale impact paintings that fuse raw emotion and primal marks with fluid, transcendent movement—designed to stir your soul, and make you feel.
- Famous Fantasy Series — iconic figures reimagined in dreamlike worlds.
- Connected to Water Collection — fluid immersive works inspired by feel-good memories of suspension in water, sensual forms, the blue ocean, vibrant light, sparkling pools and bodies of water.
- Iconic Faces Collection — portraits of truly iconic figures who inspire and uplift humanity.
- Love + Wonder Collection— vibrational energy, love as quantum resonance on canvas, love and wonder as the greatest human emotions.
- Social Impact & Sustainable Art — Planet-driven works for a better future.
Each collection is more than art—it’s an emotional anchor, a personal preference, a story, a piece of contemporary art that transforms rooms into conversations.
who my work is for
My art isn’t for everyone—and that’s intentional. It’s for those who crave more than pretty décor. For those who want their walls to radiate energy, for collectors who crave legacy, for designers seeking conversation pieces, for families bringing meaning into their homes.
My work is for those who seek adventure, something bigger, who want to live a Great Big Life, those who are brave, who stand up to what’s right and fight for what they want. For those who know life is short, and don’t just chase their dreams, but follow them with a passion every chance they can.
If you want to ‘feel’ something with your art, then you will likely find something of mine compelling….. and maybe just right for your place.
the influence of my past corporate life
Before stepping fully into art, I lived in the Corporate world—Hotel Executive, Multiple Marketing & Branding Agencies, several startups and companies as CEO, boardrooms, investors, executive teams, team members, deadlines, strategies, and leadership as a Chief Executive. I worked on 4 different continents, and several countries. I learned to be an entrepreneur, and also founded a Life and Executive Coach organization.
That world gave me discipline, vision, and the ability to translate complex ideas into powerful, simple messages. It honed my design skills, and my creative vision, but it lacked soul, color, and deep creative immersion.
Leaving wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. Trading business plans for canvases was both terrifying and liberating. That contrast and tension fuels my art today.
social impact sustainability
I believe art can be a catalyst for change on our planet.
That’s why every piece I create is part of a larger commitment: to sustainability, to social impact, to reshaping the way we live and give in our societies. Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising our planet, while giving the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs and live their best life.
My studio runs with eco-friendly materials, climate-positive practices, and a pledge that 20% of all art proceeds go directly toward Humanity We and projects that fight poverty and create opportunity and social impact for the poorest communities around the world. Art has the power to spark awe, but it also has the power to spark action—and I’m determined to prove that beauty and meaning can drive real change.
I believe that all lives have equal value.
That all men and women are created equal. That everyone belongs. That everyone has rights, and everyone has the right to flourish. I believe that when people who are bound by the rules but have no role in shaping the rules, moral blind spots become the norm—and the powerless bear the burden. … I believe that entrenched social norms that shift society’s benefits to the powerful and its burdens to the powerless not only hurt the people pushed out—but also always hurt the whole.”
― Melinda Gates, co-founder The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
the bigger purpose
For me, art is more than paint—it’s service. Through my Public Benefit Corporation, every piece sold helps fund Humanity We, (humanitywe.org) the nonprofit I founded to help communities around the world living in poverty, to fuel social good. Collectors know their investment carries both personal meaning and collective impact.
This is the work of my life. It’s how I speak, how I love, and how I serve.
When you bring one of my paintings or prints home, you’re not just decorating—you’re joining a movement, contributing to something bigger than you. I make a commitment that 20% of all my art proceeds go toward funding Humanity We and other projects that fight poverty and create opportunity for the poorest communities around the world. Because at the end of the day, art isn’t something you look at. Art is a feeling, feelings can change people, and people can change the world.
art isn’t décor. art is oxygen.
Great Big Life (building a movement).
Art is only one way I create impact. In the next few months I plan to launch Great Big Life—a movement to inspire people to live with more adventure, purpose, and joy. It’s about breaking free from the numbness of routine and stepping boldly into lives that feel expansive, meaningful, and unforgettable.
I believe the best life, A Great Big Life, is one lived creatively. Creativity is a gift to all of humanity, that each of us can choose to explore, or not. #greatbiglife is my homage and mission to support those who want to live an inspired life to whatever moves you, through adventures no matter how big or small, through the pursuit of creative things, adopting a mindset and worldview that sees creativity as awe and wonder, giving the ability to live a vibrant Great Big Life of vitality both mentally and physically.
Great Big Life is the extension of everything I believe in: creativity, connection, courage, and legacy.
Through experiences, storytelling, and transformational gatherings, I’ll be helping people design lives that feel as vivid and powerful as art itself. If my paintings capture the feeling of being alive on canvas, Great Big Life is about living and experiencing that feeling in the real world.
You only have one life. Live it big, feel deeply, and savor it fully.
adventure & living fully
Life isn’t meant to be lived small, and neither is art. My work is fueled by a deep commitment to adventure and feeling alive in a world that likes to numb us—whether I’m sailing across open seas, exploring new places or cultures, or chasing the thrill of the unknown. I believe joy is found in the moments where risk meets wonder, where the heart beats faster, and the soul feels alive.
That same spirit of adventure flows into every canvas I create—an invitation to step outside the ordinary and remember that life is meant to be lived big, felt deeply, and savored fully. This is the
essence of my Great Big Life movement: a call to embrace bold experiences, create lasting meaning, and live with the kind of passion that turns life into art.
