Peter Howson was born in London and moved when he was four with his family to Prestwick, Ayrshire. Howson and went to study at the Glasgow School of Art in 1979 where he worked alongside contemporaries such as Adrian Wiszniewski, Steven Campbell and Ken Currie.

Howson's work has encompassed a number of themes. His early works are typyfied by very masculine working class men. Later Howson produced some of his most shocking and controversial work detailing the atrocities which were taking place at the time. Peter Howson's work is collected privately and corporately worldwide.

Peter was an official war artist in the 1993 Bosnian Civil War.