Owners and Organizers
Cool Wilmington is one of the leading event management and production companies in Wilmington, North Carolina. Producing events for 20 years in Wilmington for the DBA merchant association, our events have created a positive impact to our community. We are a group of dedicated professionals who have combined our skills and experience in business, event management, innovative marketing strategies, graphic design, web design and social media marketing. www.coolwilmington.com
Peter Beckley – 2025 Featured Poster Artist
Peter Beckley is a convergent media artist living in Wilmington, North Carolina. Much of what inspires his coastal lifestyle artwork comes from living close to the beautiful beaches and Cape Fear River. He’s been creating artwork for more than 25 years in a wide variety of mediums, including charcoal, photography, pen and ink, leather, acrylics, watercolors, and most recently, digital.
Peter is primarily a self-taught artist, however creativity and artistic talent have run in his family for generations. He combines his imagination, plein air sketches, notes, photographs, memories, and other references to express his artist vision through an intricate, multi-step process.
His first group exhibition, featuring two of his charcoal drawings, happened in 1994, an experience he says he’ll never forget for how nerve-wracking, and gratifying it was. He’s now been creating art for over 20 years in a variety of media including charcoal, photography, pen and ink, leather, paint, and most recently, digitally. He says the one thing that he’s noticed when looking back though his catalog of work is that over time is that he has become more comfortable with color, but still has a fear of the blank page. His focus now is almost entirely on coastal and landscape art, the works inspired by his move to Wilmington, North Carolina in 2014. Recent themes include ocean life, shells, and coastal landscape paintings and photographs.
