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The personal album

Moments with Peter

A collection of moments shared with family, friends, and the people he inspired.

An aerial photograph of Warrana: a white homestead with red roofs, outbuildings and a pool, ringed by a circular drive and set in green rolling paddocks with a creek beyond.
Warrana, where he grew up
A black and white photograph of two small children sitting on a low garden wall: a girl in a floral dress and cardigan with a ribbon in her hair, laughing, and a fair-haired boy in buttoned dungarees and a cardigan.
Peter as a boy
A colour snapshot from the 1970s: a young Peter with dark hair, in a pale shirt, leaning in beside a young woman with long dark hair, both grinning at the camera.
Peter in the seventies
A carved and coloured leather portrait of Matthew Main as a young child, lying on their front with chin resting in both hands, signed Peter Main 85.
Matthew1985
Peter in a pale zip jacket standing in a doorway, holding the hand of a small boy in a dark t-shirt and shorts.
Peter and Matthew
Peter in shirtsleeves and a tie, sitting with Emma in a pink party dress and Matthew in a waistcoat and tie, in front of a brick fireplace and trailing plants.
Peter with Emma and Matthew
Peter in a shirt and striped tie sitting between Pietra and Sarah as teenagers, all three leaning in and smiling, a timber-lined room behind them.
Peter with Pietra and Sarah
Peter in a white shirt with his arms around an older couple in checked shirts and tooled belt buckles, one of them in a wide-brimmed hat.
With Al and Ann Stohlman
Peter sitting on a stool beside Ann Stohlman in a timber-lined room at the Don King Museum, the walls behind them covered in framed drawings, photographs and leather patterns.
With Ann Stohlman at the Don King Museum2000
Two photographs of Peter’s daughter Pietra at his workbench, hundreds of stamping tools racked behind her: as a small child in black and white, and grown up in colour, mallet raised.
Pietra at his bench, then and now
Pietra, Emma and Sarah Main standing together on a staircase, dressed for an evening out.
Pietra, Emma and Sarah
A black and white photograph of Peter on a beach in Ibiza, in a white shirt and trousers, smiling, holding hands with his daughters Sarah and Emma, both dressed in white, the sea behind them.
Sarah and Emma with Peter, Ibiza
Peter in a pink striped shirt in his Houston studio, holding up a small carved piece, racks of stamping tools and drawers of fittings behind him.
In the studio in Houston
Peter standing behind Emma in his workshop as she takes a mirror photograph of them both, the tool bench and racked tools along the wall behind.
Peter and Emma in the workshop
A black and white photograph of a crowd backstage. A framed leather panel is being held up at the right of the group, and a young person stands at the centre with an arm around them.
Backstage, with one of his pieces
Two fair-haired children at a dining table cutting a pale blue birthday cake covered in candles, a framed painting of palm trees on the wall behind them.
A birthday at home
Peter in a striped shirt sitting on a sofa between his four grown children, all leaning into one another, a large framed painting on the wall behind.
Peter with his four children
A black and white photograph of Peter in morning dress with a cravat and a white rose buttonhole, arm in arm with his daughter in her wedding dress and veil, holding a bouquet of white lilies and roses.
Walking his daughter down the aisle
Peter in a dinner suit, waistcoat and cravat with a white rose in his lapel, a glass of red wine in one hand and his other arm around a smiling woman in black.
Dressed for the evening
Seen from above: Peter in a blue checked shirt leaning over a small boy at the workbench, guiding a stamping tool and mallet onto a piece of leather, the whole bench and its racked tools spread out in front of them.
Teaching at his bench
Peter bending over the bench beside a young boy, drawing a border line along a piece of tan leather with a steel rule, hundreds of stamping tools racked on the wall behind.
Showing him where the line goes
A small girl in a pink dress kneeling up at Peter’s workbench, mallet raised over a stamping tool on a piece of leather, the workshop stretching away behind her.
Small hands at a big bench
A boy in the workshop grinning widely, holding up a piece of tan leather he has tooled with a decorative border.
His first piece
A small girl with curly fair hair sitting at the bench, holding up a piece of tan leather covered in the marks she has stamped into it, a tool still in her other hand.
Her first piece
Peter dressed head to toe in white, camera in one hand, holding the hand of a small blonde child in a white cardigan and navy skirt on a walkway through a park.
A walk in the park
A close photograph of Peter in a white spotted shirt, smiling, his daughter leaning in beside him with sunglasses pushed up into her hair.
Together, later on
Peter on a seafront promenade in Ibiza in a pale jacket and dark scarf, holding up a glass bottle of water, palm trees and the sea behind him.
On the promenade, Ibiza
Peter with his hand on his daughter’s shoulder on the beach at Ibiza at golden hour, the bay and the headland behind them.
On the beach at Ibiza
Peter at a marble table turning to the camera with a half-smile, cocktails and bowls of crisps in front of him, his daughter beside him raising a glass.
Out for the evening
Peter standing in a hallway in a blue patterned shirt and pale trousers, mid-sentence, the door to his workshop open behind him.
At home, the workshop door open behind him
Peter bent over a stitching machine under a lamp, feeding leather through by hand, cones of thread in every colour racked along the bench beside him.
At the stitching machine
Peter’s hands at work on a long black leather belt laid out on a green cutting mat, finished belts and a leather handbag on the bench beyond.
His hands, still working
A brick cottage with a green corrugated roof, green posts and a white picket fence, on a Sydney street.
The cottage, as it stands

A collection of his masterpieces →