Peter Sawatzky

Peter Sawatzky (born 1951) is a Canadian sculptor from the southern Manitoba community of Sommerfeld. He is known for his large-scale work in bronze, many of animals.

Notable works by Sawatzky include Seal River Crossing (2007) at Portage and Main in Winnipeg, Mother Polar Bear and Cubs (2014) at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, and a sculpture of Dirk Willems at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba (2018).

Life and career Peter Sawatzky was born in 1951 in the Mennonite village of Sommerfeld, near Altona, Manitoba. He grew up on his family's farm in Sommerfeld, and attended the Commercial Art Course at Red River College in Winnipeg through a scholarship.

Awards and exhibitions won the artist international recognition, and by the mid 1980s, his success enabled him to make the decision to work in bronze and to set up his own foundry in Manitoba. In 1995, he cast a bronze sculpture entitled The Passage of Time for the south side of Winnipeg's Charleswood Bridge.

Later in life, Sawatzky moved near Glenboro. 2015 A bronze bust of the titular prime minister at Sir Winston Churchill High School in Calgary, Alberta. The piece was commissioned by the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death. Calgary, AB Sculpture of Dirk Willems 2018 A life-size bronze sculpture based on an engraving by Jan Luyken, and located in the Mennonite Heritage Village. Steinbach, MB (Mennonite Heritage Village) Sculpture of James A. Richardson Sr. A sculpture located at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. Winnipeg (Winnipeg Airport) Sculpture of José Rizal 2019 A tall sculpture of José Rizal, a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the end of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, located Waterford Green Development in northwest Winnipeg. Winnipeg

The Peter Sawatzky Sculpture Garden is currently being developed in Brandon, Manitoba, to showcase a collection of Sawatzky's sculptures at the Riverbank Discovery Centre. The collection will be themed after animals commonly found in the province.