Artist Peter Paone experiencing a renaissance with two exhibitions now on view

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Paid Sponsor Partnership: Philadelphia Corporation for Aging

Longtime artist Peter Paone is enjoying his moment in the sun, creating new work in his nearly 50-year-old home studio.

"I'm interested primarily in the human condition, so my imagery has to say something," says Paone.

He's currently working on the first painting of what he's calling the 'Couples' series.

For decades, Paone juggled three careers as a painter, a printmaker and an educator.

"I am of the generation where we were expected to do it all," he says.

He's had more than 100 exhibitions nationally and internationally, which includes both one-person and group shows.

There is a nook in his studio, which he's dubbed 'Peacock Studio,' with binders all pertaining to his career.

"Paone means peacock," he says.

Born in 1936 in South Philadelphia, he says art came naturally.

"I always wanted to be an artist," he says. "I would just sit and draw people."

It was a trip to the Barnes Foundation as a teenager that shaped his practice. Back then, it wasn't open to the public.

"I climbed over the gate and went in," he says. "It introduced me to modernism."

Paone also has an extensive library in his studio. Since the age of 12, he's amassed about 2,500 books on modern masters, like Brock and Picasso.

He says if he had to categorize himself, he's "a modernist."

"I tell stories," he says. "And so, it all comes from memory. It comes from life experience, and it comes from my imagination. It's a mixture. It's not just one thing, and an image evolves."

At the age of 89, his creativity is flourishing after taking a long break from the art world.

"My career is, at the moment, experiencing a renaissance," he says.

Once he decided to pick his brush back up, he focused and worked, creating four self-portraits and a plethora of other work.

"As a result, I have enough work for two shows," he says.

"Snowpeople" is on view at the Woodmere Art Museum through February 15, 2026, and the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown is showing Paone's "Not So Still Life" exhibition through March 15, 2026.

"At my age, it's terrific," he laughs.

Just like the early modernist painters, Paone makes all his own paint.

"Not because it's cheaper, but because I can make colors I can't buy," he says.

And he hopes his art provokes something in the viewer.

"That there would be a reason to continue to look at my work, you know, that's all you can hope for," he says.

For more information:
"Snowpeople" at Woodmere Art Museum through February 15, 2026
"Peter Paone: Not So Still Life" at Michener Art Museum through March 15, 2026