Horses have always played an important part in Peter's life. From an early age he was fascinated by their beauty and grace, their movement and the unique bond that exists between man and horse. It was when his family moved to England and his mother began collecting and dealing in sporting paintings that he first became aware of the tradition of British sporting painting. He soon became an avid admirer of Munnings, Lionel Edwards, John Skeaping and Michael Lyne.

The racing valley of Lambourn was not far away and Peter spent a lot of time going backwards and forwards to the gallops. It was in Lambourn that he held his first exhibition at the tender age of fourteen - he was very well received and everything sold immediately. A spell in Newmarket broadened his horizons and when he moved back to Ireland in 1975 he quickly became involved in racing and had a number of not very successful ventures into racehorse ownership.

In 1984 his luck changed and shortly after he purchased a horse called Caddy. He was lucky enough to ride the horse himself to victory on his first ride on the racecourse. Caddy went on to win a number of races, the highlight being the Kerry National in 1989. Since then Peter has been an incredibly lucky racehorse owner, having had tremendous success with horses such as Kerry Orchid and Ventana Canyon, the Cheltenham winner in which he owned a share.

With tongue in cheek, Peter has written a short story in verse which he has illustrated about the pitfalls which await the potential owner. Simply titled "The Owner", this beautifully produced book with its clever illustrations will be published later this year by Cashel Fine Art as a slim volume for the Christmas market. Printed in Italy to the highest standards, "The Owner" is an ideal present for the racing fanatic. For more information about the book "The Owner" please click here.

When he moved to Tipperary, Peter also became involved with hunting and it was this new found interest that opened up a different field of inspiration for his painting. Hunting regularly for the last twenty years with the Tipperary foxhounds and other adjoining packs has given Peter an intimate knowledge of the Irish landscape and surrounded by horses in the hunting field he sees them at their most diverse and from every angle as they negotiate the challenging country.

When Peter and and his wife Louise first set up Skehanagh stud they were keen to breed from a nucleus of national hunt mares, but they were unlucky with the foals they produced. A change in policy has resulted in their buying horses as yearlings, keeping them for a couple of years and bringing them back to the sales as three and four year olds. They have been very successful with this venture, topping the sales with the first two horses offered in 1998.

Peter's son Sam is an aspiring and enthusiastic young jockey and with this in mind Peter and his wife Louise have set up a small but successful training operation at Skehanagh. Louise has taken out a permit to train her own horses and with the help of an enthusiastic couple in Des Williams and Brigid Neill they have enjoyed success with point-to-pointers and also on the track where recently Sam rode Louise's Merry Minstrel to victory in a steeplechase.

Having such a close involvement with the horses and their training gives Peter's work an authenticity which shines through and reflects in the appeal his work has to both the horse expert as well as the art lover. It is these paintings of the horse in the Irish landscape which are probably Peter's most popular pieces and the atmosphere and subtle colour of horses at exercise in the soft Irish landscape are a constant source of inspiration.