"One demonstration of the way photography became assimilated into the art world is the success of photorealist painting in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is also called super-realism or hyper-realism and painters like Richard Estes, Denis Peterson, Audrey Flack, and Chuck Close often worked from photographic stills to create paintings that appeared to be photographs." (1)

(1) - From the newly released 248 page book "American Culture in the Twentieth Century" by Graham Thompson, Edinburgh University Press (U.K.) 2007

Denis Peterson learned drawing, painting and art restoration under the lifelong tutelage of his grandfather, a master atelier painter and protégé of Claude Monet. By the time Denis had earned his painting MFA and was awarded a teaching fellowship at Pratt, he had already been restoring 16th and 17th century Flemish paintings for major museums.

His early photorealist paintings were shown at the Brooklyn Museum, one of the premier art institutions in the world. His iconic works were airbrushed with acrylic paints, something not attempted by any known painters at the time. These large figurative paintings were distinguished by "cropped" images - an aesthetic parody on photography - groundbreaking then, commonplace today.

His pioneering new work evolved into a more extreme form of photorealism he initially termed as hyperrealism. This intense style has since gained widespread popularity and recognition as a legitimate new school of painting with an international following.

Denis paints fulltime in his Long Island art studio. His new work is currently exhibited in London, New York and Los Angeles.