I Remember Peer Christensen

 

I Remember Peer Christensen

Oct 1953 - May 2026

When I arrived in Peterborough County nearly thirty years ago, one of the first people I met was Peer Christensen. I had come from Toronto, where I was working for a retail art supply company. I was also a struggling visual artist, an emerging one, though older than most emerging artists being in my early forties. I saw in Peterborough a community which I hoped would give me the time and space to produce some new work.

Peer was a central figure in Peterborough's thriving arts community. He had the ideal set-up for a visual artist and business person - a heritage building in downtown Peterborough with a bright open gallery space, framing department, artist's studio space one level up, and living space on the top floor.

I visited the gallery a number of times before mustering the courage to speak to him, but in Peer I found a kindred spirit. After a bit of a chat, he agreed to look at some of my work and offered me a spot in his next group show. He was also a strong advocate for the 'Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour' run by the 

Art Gallery of Peterborough, and convinced me to apply, this being something in which I would go on to participate annually.

For me, Peer was an advisor. If I was unsure of how something worked in the Peterborough arts community, he was the person whose counsel I sought. If I struggled with an artwork, his input was invaluable. Having a conversation with Peer was never anything but uplifting. Over the years I had a number of solo exhibitions in that beautiful gallery space. He and his wife Lori became not only the most trustworthy of associates, but

good friends.

In the pursuit of his own art practice, Peer was a driving force, a tireless seeker.

His works were a common sight at summer outdoor art shows across Southern Ontario, always gathering a crowd. For ten years, I had a tent at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in Nathan Phillips Square, usually within shouting distance of Peer. When the traffic was quiet, we'd meet in the middle ground and discuss not art, but that which was all-encompassing at these outdoor events -

wind, weather, washrooms,

and also where to get a decent cup of coffee, the people wandering about, and how much we both loved living in Peterborough.

Relentlessly positive and deeply spiritual, his art reflected this. He saw the beauty in what some would find mundane - an industrial warehouse, a Canadian Pacific Railway engine, a city street, a row of leafless trees, the rusted hull of a Great Lakes freighter.

He created a lasting body of work reflecting the world around us in all of its varied tones and textures, its flaws and its elegance. 

An observer, an archivist, a painter, a mentor, and an unfailingly kind human being, he has left a

legacy of enormous worth.

-Anne Renouf