Stacey L. Peterson was born in 1978 and raised in Littleton, Colorado. Growing up at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Stacey developed a love for the outdoors that influences her artwork today. An avid hiker, backpacker, and triathlete, Peterson draws upon her time outdoors to provide the inspiration for her landscape paintings. She often works on location, and uses her plein air studies as reference for studio works that depict locations in the wilderness areas of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. 

At age 31, Stacey is already an award-winning painter, most recently honored with Jury's Top Fifty at the 2008 Salon International show and awards of excellence at the Oil Painters of America’s 15^th and 16^th national exhibitions. She was featured as one of Southwest Art Magazine’s “21 Under 31” in 2006, and has also had her work published in American Artist Magazine.

Peterson developed a love of art in early childhood, but took a career detour on the way to becoming a professional artist. Although she excelled in the arts as a child and received encouragement to pursue a career in design, she also did well in math and science and ultimately followed the advice of those who encouraged her to obtain a more practical engineering degree. After college graduation, Stacey moved to Houston, Texas where she worked as a process engineer for oil giant ExxonMobil. Homesick for the mountains of Colorado and seeking a creative outlet from her increasingly technical day job, she signed up for weekend oil painting classes and began to realize that engineering might have been the wrong career choice. Shortly thereafter, she returned to Colorado and began to paint landscapes, melding her love of the outdoors with her newfound passion for oil painting. 

Peterson continued to work as an engineer for the next four years, designing air pollution control systems for industrial clients. Although she was passionate about the environmental side of her work and happy to be back in Colorado, she felt that a career in art was her true calling. Fulfilling a childhood dream, Peterson quit her environmental engineering job in 2006 to pursue painting full-time. 

Primarily a self-taught artist, Stacey’s art education includes coursework at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and workshops with nationally recognized painters Dan Young, Jay Moore, and John David Phillips. By way of formal education, Stacey holds a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Science from the Colorado School of Mines.

Peterson is a member of the Oil Painters of America (OPA), and the Plein Air Artists of Colorado (PAAC). Her work can be viewed at Elk Horn Fine Art in Winter Park, CO, Oh-Be-Joyful Gallery in Crested Butte, CO and Wild Horse Gallery in Steamboat Springs, CO.  Stacey lives in the small mountain town of Granby, Colorado with her husband Nathan, three year old daughter Aspen, and new baby boy Owen.


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