In 1736, Petet Monamy, together with William Hogarth and Francis Hayman, were commissioned to assist in the decorations of the newly-opened pleasure gardens at Vauxhall; all four of his paintings were subsequently engraved. Encouraged by Hogarth, Monamy also produced a major port scene for Thomas Coram's Foundling Hospital. The location of this work is now unknown.

Monamy painted storms, calms, Thames views and naval actions, and working on canvas, panel and copper; he also etched and engraved.

Monamy produced work for the Royal family, for the aristocracy and gentry (including the Byngs, a powerful naval family), for City merchants and livery halls. Taking up a tradition which he had inherited from Dutch painters, the van de Veldes, Monamy nurtured an English school of marine painting and paved the way for Charles Brooking, Nicholas Pocock and later artists. Monamy's daughter married the marine painter Francis Swaine, and his grandson was another marine artist, Monamy Swaine.

MUSEUMS: The work of Peter Monamy is represented in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the National Gallery, Dublin; the City Art Gallery, Glasgow; the Painter Stainers' Company, London; the National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.