Multi-talented artist, sculptor, teacher and publisher, born in London. Although the glass engraver and writer Laurence Whistler ranked Petts alongside Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Stanley Spencer as an artist dealing with Christian themes, Petts remained an outsider, relatively unknown. Studied at Hornsey College of Art, 1930–2; then 1933–4 was at Royal Academy Schools and Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1934 he moved to Llanllechid, in a remote part of Wales, where with his first wife, the artist and writer Brenda Chamberlain, he founded Caseg Press which published popular prints with Snowdonia themes. After World War II, during which Petts was a pacifist non-combatant, the artist resumed life in Wales with his second wife, the artist and writer Marjory (Kusha) Miller.