At home with Peter Pharoah

A Life Shaped by a love for Africa
Peter Pharoah’s story begins in 1969, in Johannesburg, South Africa

A Life Shaped by a love for Africa
Peter Pharoah’s story began in 1969, in Johannesburg, South Africa

His early years were marked by achievement, matriculating from Kearsney College in 1986 with major art awards including the Natal Schools Art Award and the Grahamstown Art Festival Award. These formative experiences set the tone for a life deeply connected to creativity, culture, and the visual language of Africa.

From Advertising to Fine Art

After studying graphic design at the Witwatersrand Technikon and winning the Wilsenach Young Designer’s Award, Peter entered the world of advertising as an art director and illustrator at Young & Rubicam . But the corporate world couldn’t contain his artistic voice for long. By 1994, he shifted into freelance illustration, mastering mediums from airbrush to acrylics — a technical foundation that later shaped the bold, expressive style he is known for today.

Artistic Style:
Peter Pharoah is widely recognized for his bold, vibrant, and deeply textured oil paintings.

Finding Home in Wilderness

In 1998, Peter moved to Wilderness on the Garden Route, a decision that transformed his life and career. Surrounded by lagoon light, coastal forests, and the quiet rhythms of village life, he embraced fine art full‑time . The Pharoah Gallery opened in 2001 in a thatched cottage beside the Wilderness Lagoon, becoming a beloved local landmark. Even after the devastating 2010 fire that destroyed the gallery and his entire collection, Peter rebuilt — reopening in the Wilderness Centre in 2011, where the gallery continues to thrive.

The Artist Behind the Canvas

Peter’s work is often described as a “stunning evocation of tribal people, imbued with the heat and dust of Africa” . His portraits, wildlife studies, abstracts, and seascapes pulse with colour, texture, and emotional energy. Whether capturing the elegance of tribal Africa or the raw power of wildlife, his brushwork reflects a deep connection to the continent’s spirit. Today, his paintings appear in collections across Europe, the United States, Canada, and South Africa, and he serves as an Art Ambassador for Helping Rhinos, merging art with conservation advocacy.

A Home Filled with Art, Colour and Inspiration

Spend time with Peter in his Wilderness studio and you’ll find a space alive with canvases, pigments, and the quiet hum of creativity. His home reflects the same warmth and vibrancy found in his paintings, a place where African stories, wildlife encounters, and years of artistic exploration come together. It’s here, surrounded by treasures collected in their travels that Peter lives, works and paints the artworks that have captivated collectors around the world.

An Aviation Legacy Written in the Clouds

Peter’s lifelong passion for the sky is rooted in a family legacy of flight, a tradition that began with his grandfather, Victor Smith, an aviation pioneer in South Africa during the 1930s. Victor documented his early flying adventures in Open Cockpit Over Africa, and Peter later illustrated the cover for the book. His father, Hugh Pharoah, served in the South African Air Force before becoming a respected commercial pilot with a career spanning three decades working first for SAA, then Air Mauritius and later Singapore Airlines. Growing up in a household where flying was second nature, Peter and his brothers inherited not just a love of aircraft, but a reverence for the freedom and perspective that only the sky can offer. It’s from this lineage of explorers that Peter found his wings creative on the ground, fearless in the sky.

The Freedom of Flight

For Peter, flying is more than a hobby; it’s a parallel to painting — a place where instinct, skill, and emotion meet. He holds a private pilot’s licence, and his passion for aviation comes alive in the sleek lines of his Aériane Swift ultralight sailplane, fitted with the E‑Lite self‑launch system. The Swift gives him the purest form of flight: silent, graceful, and deeply connected to the natural world. Whether soaring over the Garden Route or chasing thermals inland, Peter finds the same energy in the sky that he channels onto canvas.

Visit The Pharoah Gallery in Wilderness
Step into Peter’s world and experience his art in person - a must‑see destination on the Garden Route where colour, culture, and creativity come to life.

Take a Special Memory Home...