Juliet Peter

Judith Eleanor Jane Cowan (née Peter, 18 September 1915 – 12 January 2010), generally known as Juliet Peter, was a New Zealand artist, potter, and printmaker. Her husband Roy Cowan was also a well-known New Zealand potter, printmaker, and illustrator.

Early life Peter was born at Anama in rural Mid Canterbury in 1915, and growing up on a farm there, she did not receive a formal education. Her mother was Violet Peter (1875–1926), the eldest child of the surveyor, photographer, explorer, farmer, and entomologist Edward Sealy (1839–1903) from Timaru. Her father was Charles James Peter (born 1867; died in Pape'ete, Tahiti, 5 April 1928 ), a son of William Spence Peter (1818–1891) who lived at Anama and served as a member of the Legislative Council. During the 1920s, Peter's life was disrupted by the death of her mother and the illness of her father, which led to the selling of the family farm and relocation of her family to England. At the college, she was greatly influenced by her tutor Francis Shurrock. She completed a diploma in painting in 1939. The couple acquired a lithography press in England that they brought back to New Zealand with them. Peter wrote of the visits she and Angus made:‘Conversation was kept to a minimum, we did not wish to attract attention to ourselves. But from time to time, a low voice would call, “Juliet, come and see …” and together we would examine a curious inscription, or a pattern of lichen on stone.‘The summer of 1969 favoured our work. Sundays were usually fine, continuing into autumn. As the Engines of Destruction advanced up the cemetery, so we retreated.’ In 1999, Peter was included in The Eighties Show at The Dowse Art Museum, an exhibition of artists who were still active in their eighties, including Doreen Blumhardt, John Drawbridge, Roy Cowan, and Avis Higgs.

Peter also exhibited at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, the Canterbury Society of Arts, The Group, and the Auckland Society of Arts. She died in Wellington in 2010, and her ashes were buried at Mākara Cemetery.

Her work was shown alongside Roy Cowan's in 2014 at The Dowse Art Museum in A Modest Modernism: Roy Cowan and Juliet Peter.

Recognition In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, Peter was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts.

Collections Peter's work is held in the collections of the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, The Dowse Art Museum,