Peter Belton is a graduate of the University of Canterbury and has an MFA from RMIT University, Melbourne.  He has a background in secondary school teaching, teacher education at the Dunedin College of Education and Otago University and has curated exhibitions at the Southland Museum & Art Gallery.  Peter is currently teaching at the Southern Institute of Technology.

Peter Belton is a practicing artist who has regular exhibitions. He has work held in private and public collections in Australia, The United Kingdom, USA, France, Germany and New Zealand.   His most recent exhibitions have been an invited solo exhibition at The Southland Museum & Art Gallery in 2013 and participation in an invited group exhibition at SMAG in 2014.

Since 1997 Peter Belton has also worked as a designer and set maker for Daniel Belton & Good Company, producers of contemporary dance performances and films.

Peter Belton's recent poetry about other artists can be found  in Landfall 240  (Vincent's Starry Night.  p68)); and Landfall 241 (Ralph Hotere finds his balance  p.110)

In December 2021,  Peter published  Poems about Painters and One Extraordinary Sculptor:  (Giselebertus,   Watteau,   Dante Gabriel Rosetti and others, William Holman Hunt, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Manet and Karl Hubbuch).