Peter Anson outside his top floor flat in Ferryden, Montrose
Peter Anson based himself at Caldey Island for fourteen years, travelling widely during this time. His joint interests of faith and the sea led him, in 1921, to co-found The Apostleship of the Sea, an organisation dedicated to administering to the material and spiritual needs of Catholic seafarers. At the same time he was initiated into the fishing life of the Moray coast, where he made lifelong friendships among the communities of Lossiemouth, Hopeman, Buckie and Nairn. He made a great many paintings and drawings of the life and people of the area, and was to return again and again to the area over the next fifteen years. Having left the monastic community at Caldey in 1924, he travelled widely overseas, taking up writing and painting as his profession.
During this time he founded the Society of Marine Artists, and produced much of his artistic work. His style now strongly reflected his technical training, and he often worked closely from photographs to ensure absolute accuracy.
In 1938 he settled on the Moray coast, first at Portsoy, then at Macduff, where he was to stay for over fourteen years painting and writing. He influenced the famous author Neil Gunn, who was persuaded by Anson to complete his work on the early Moray herring industry in his publication The Silver Darlings (1941).
However after this period in his life he seemed to suffer from a restlessness of spirit, never again settling anywhere for long.
