Peter Forward graduated as an art teacher at Melbourne State College in 1971, majoring in ceramics. He taught secondary school for a year, travelled overseas for two years and worked as a builder's labourer, before building a mud-brick house and studio in Daylesford, Victoria, establishing himself as a full-time potter in 1978. During the 1980s and 1990s, he made simple slabs, slab pots and wheel-thrown forms decorated with Australian bird, plant and landscape motifs. using slips, engobes, oxides and body stains applied by spraying, pouring, air brushing with paper stencils and brushwork techniques. He currently lives in Newtown, Victoria where, since 2001, he has focused mainly on painting, drawing and collage. His ceramic works are painted 'Forward'.