Since 1970, Peter Powning has lived and worked as an artist in the hills of southern New Brunswick. His life is characterized by intense periods of work preparing for exhibitions and commissions, punctuated by periodic travel. While Powning’s award-winning work is shown internationally, it is imbued with qualities distilled from a life lived close to the silence, space and seasonal rhythms of his home, the fields, forests and shorelines of Canada’s east coast.

His work has been included in a number of books: an essay written by Powning in Robin Hopper’s latest book, "Stayin’ Alive"; John Mathieson’s recent book on raku ceramics, published in Great Britain; and "GLASS ART: Urban Art 2003" by Richard Yelle.

Asked to describe his work, Powning says: "my work is meant to have the feel of the artifact. An emotional artifact made solid. A cultural artifact from some future/past, reconstructed or guessed at. Some parts original, some new, others assumed." Ideas that characterize his work, he suggests, might be: " ‘falling apart,’ ‘pulling myself together,’ ‘the whole being greater than the sum of its parts,’ cultural fragmentation, the beauty of the spirit that has been tried and survived, the diaspora of the modern family, or homeostasis (the optimistic notion that the body tends towards equilibrium once knocked off-kilter emotionally or physically.)"

These concerns inform much of his work, sometimes deliberately, but often in subtle, even unintentional ways.

Peter Powning is married to author Beth Powning. They have one son, Jake Powning, a swordsmith who shares studio space with Peter and lives nearby with his family.