The artist
Peter Polites
Atlanta · Savannah · Tybee Island
Peter Polites was raised in an atmosphere of classical old world charm and southern beauty. Science and art were his early passions directing him to his life’s path of exploring nature and the human condition.
Polites captures fleeting moments in nature using classical painting techniques while infusing each scene with his own interpretations and emotion. Subjects range from stormy dark skies to bright golden sunrises and quiet mornings in the marshes and on the beaches of Tybee Island, Georgia.
Concurrently his paintings are represented by galleries in New York, Atlanta and Savannah. He has had numerous one-man shows and won honors in group exhibitions including Atlanta’s Piedmont Arts Festival and The Isabel Steinschneider Memorial Award from the Hudson Valley Art Association. Most recently he was honored for his architecture and art by the Hellenic Cultural Foundation in New York.
His painting career spans over 50 years, exploring our relationship to the natural and psychological landscape. His work heightens awareness of nature’s importance in our lives. Polites’ paintings appear in public and private collections around the US and in Europe.
Stages
A working life
1960s
Folk song, Savannah
Grew up in Savannah, across from a William Jay house. Played guitar in the streets with a partner who later became a priest. Science and art were the early passions.
1972
Georgia Tech, then the drafting table
Bachelor of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology. Apprenticed with John Portman & Associates, then a decade at Cooper Carry. At home, a drafting table became a studio: the Compositions — pencil, lead shavings, applied silver leaf.
1970s —
Gold Beach scenes
The signature series begins and never really stops. Spray enamels, gold leaf, and acrylic on canvas or paper. Water built from actual gold foil. The last evening stroll on a Georgia shore.
1985
Polites & Associates
Founded an architecture practice and designed hundreds of homes, offices, and luxury interiors. Painting reached a new level while serving as architect for the Newington-Cropsey Museum in New York, studying Hudson River School masterpieces.
2011
WAVES, Millennium Gate
Twenty ocean and marsh landscapes in a solo exhibition at Atlanta’s Millennium Gate Museum. Storm skies, beaches, warm sunrises — no buildings, so the subject stays nature.
2025
Alan Avery, Atlanta
Signed with Alan Avery Art Company. Wood and Water, with woodturner Anatoly Tsris. Horizon Passages and a new generation of Gold Beach pictures — fifty years of leaf and light.
Honors
- Hellenic Cultural Foundation, New York — honor for architecture and art
- Isabel Steinschneider Memorial Award, Hudson Valley Art Association
- Atlanta’s Piedmont Arts Festival
- One-man shows; galleries in New York, Atlanta, and Savannah
- Public and private collections in the United States and Europe
On painting
First inspirations were Van Gogh and Monet, then Picasso, Pollock, Wyeth, Hopper, Dalí; later Vermeer, Rembrandt, Church, Kensett, Bierstadt. John Hardy, his freehand teacher at Georgia Tech, remains a mentor. In architecture: William Jay, the Parthenon, Neutra, Wright, Portman. In the studio he plays Bach, the Beatles, Miles Davis, Steve Reich — one chord change can start a whole new visual thing.
He wrote the song Girl on the Shore in 2005 and produced the CD Save Savannah. The paintings and the songs keep returning to the same coast.