Peter Coates interview: Kilbirnie art exhibition

Peter Coates has several lifelong passions, including being an international artist who has exhibited widely – including the prestigious Mexico International Watercolour Biennial and has works in major collections globally such as the National Art Museum of China. He recently exhibited at the Beijing Biennale. From an early age Peter was interested in art, both his grandparents were artists and his father sold painting materials. Peter also has a lifelong interest in the teaching of Art to children and beyond.

Peter is also a major pioneering television director and producer in New Zealand, who has directed or produced over 390 programmes for NZ national television. This work particularly championed arts on TV, rugby  documentaries and programmes about disability. Peter was awarded the Broadcasting Award by the NZ Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council . You can view a sample of his television work here at NZ on Screen.

Peter was also a major force in the New Zealand opera scene, both here and abroad. He has sung in, directed or produced major operas for the NZ Opera Company, Wellington City Opera, De La Tour Opera, and TVNZ: such as The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville and  Hansel and Gretel.

Since retiring, Peter has largely focussed his creative efforts on his art which is where this retrospective exhibition at  the Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library comes in.

We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Peter for taking the time to answer our questions, for providing such an illuminating insight into his life, world and work, and also for giving us permission to use images of his artwork  in the interview.

All art is copyright Peter Coates and used with kind permission.