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Peter Michael Stilton (November 13, 1944 - December 11, 2020) was a renowned American artist known for his abstract and lyrical expressionism paintings. He was born in Syracuse, New York.

== Artwork style == Stilton’s work is eclectic, spiritual, and playful. His subjects range from cityscapes, interiors, and gardens to landscapes and seascapes. The abstract paintings feature glowing boxes of color. Stilton’s expressionist works are full of a cast of characters from art and cultural history: whimsical interpretations of 18th C. Chippendale chairs, musical instruments, Rolls-Royces, iconic architecture, chess pieces, court playing cards, and more.

Stilton’s work was driven by his passion for art history as well as by the landmark architecture he saw during travels, including a trip to Europe and Egypt in 1978 under a Fulbright faculty study grant. He was fascinated by light. He even planned for the effect on his paintings of different lights and times of the day. Stilton worked with found item assemblage sculptures for a time and used photography and collage in his paintings. He created approximately 3,000 works over his lifetime.

== Early life and career == Peter Stilton's passion for painting arose in early childhood, as Stilton’s parents were artists and started him in painting lessons at age 5. His father was a professor of ceramics at Kent State University in Ohio.

During high school, he painted Modigliani nudes just to shock his mother's guests. His first sale as a painter was in a high school museum show. He spent much time reading classic plays and novels and painting in museums. They were like a second home for him. He began his career as a painter, teacher, and mentor with Katherine Nelson, a retired painting professor from Alfred University, who was his master teacher.

In 1966, Stilton graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kent State University Honors College in Ohio. He earned his Master’s degree in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1968 and his master's in Cinema and Film Education from the University of Southern California in 1972.

He studied, lived, and worked in Los Angeles, California, from 1962 to 1972. In the early 1970s, he moved to New York, to teach at Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls in Waterloo, where he met his wife, Jill Levin Stilton. She was one of his students. They married in 1975 and moved to Tampa, Florida in 1982.

For the next two decades, he taught art and humanities as an adjunct professor at Hillsborough Community College and other local colleges and universities in Florida.

One-Man Exhibits: More than 40 including:

 * La Sorbonne (University of Paris) Paris, France in 1995 and in 1998 (First American).
 * Galerie Art et Communication, Paris, France 1995, 1998 (Catalog L'Art et L'Adresse).
 * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture, Troy, New York February 1980.

Group Exhibits

 * National Weather Center Biennale, Norman Oklahoma, April- June 2013 (Catalog).
 * Tampa Museum featured artist at "Art After Dark" event, Tampa, Florida, July 2012.
 * Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), "Unseen Exhibit," Tampa, Florida 2010 (Catalog).
 * Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), "Earth Visions Exhibit," Tampa, Florida 2010 (both shows at their ARC Gallery in MOSI) (Catalog).
 * Tampa Airport "Wonders of Flight" exhibit 2006 Tampa Airport "Fantastic Florida" exhibit 2005-2006.

Museums
Stilton's work can be found in the permanent collection of:


 * The Springfield, Massachusetts Museum of Fine Arts, since 2000.
 * The Office of the Mayor of Paris, France (French National Collection), since 1999.

Public and Corporate Collections

 * Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida 2007 Suncoast Bank Center Building, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 2006.
 * Florida Aquarium, Tampa, Florida 2004 Raymond James Financial, Saint Petersburg, Florida 2003.

Honors and Grants

 * 1978: Fulbright Faculty Study Grant, from Eisenhower College/RIT, Seneca Falls, New York.
 * 2016: Hillsborough County Arts Council Individual Artist Grant for new work, shown at March 2017 one-man exhibit at the non-profit Arts for ACT Gallery, Fort Myers, Florida.

== Books and Catalogs ==


 * 1995: "L'Art and L'Adresse" of Peter Stilton published by Michelangelo Guides, Lise Cormery, Fall 1995, 24 pages, French and English.
 * 1996: "Through Portals of Painting and Poetry" (Les arts Culturels) by Dr. Anne Marie de Moret French and English.