Peter Onstad (b. 1937, Mexico City) attended the San Francisco Art Institute from 1963 to 1967, studying with Bay Area figurative painters, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, and Bruce McGaw.  Onstad left the Art Institute to live and work in New York.  Upon returning to San Francisco, Alvin Light, then head of the graduate program, invited him into the program on a full scholarship.  He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973.

In the following years, he was part of the artistic and literary scene in San Francisco’s North Beach where many poets, writers and artists gathered. His work at this time consisted of collages and mixed-media constructions made with found objects.  In the early 1980s, he began making large abstract paintings, returning to the figure after a few years.  He continues to paint exploring both the external world and the subconscious in his most recent work.

Onstad's work has been shown at the Yerba Buena Center, the Legion of Honor, the Richmond Art Center, the Hall of Flowers, the Diego Rivera Gallery, the San Francisco Art Festivals and other Bay Area galleries and can be found in private collections. 

Peter Onstad lived in San Francisco until 2000 and now divides his time between Oakland and rural Mendocino County.