John is a British realist artist working mainly in gouache, pastels and graphite pencil.
He’s a professional working part-time out of his home studio; from where he has been selling his speculative artworks and producing commissioned pieces for over 40 years.
Commissions currently open.
The work
His paintings and drawings across a diversity of subject areas; reveal John’s lifelong fascination with: texture, surface, form, light & shadow – and how these interact to varying degrees to bring to our eyes a beautiful or interesting scene. Such conjunctions are, of course, not solely confined to the natural world, but also occur in the man-made environment; if one takes the time and has an eye to seek them out. Ultimately it’s all about light and colour.
Though he works from photographs in his studio, he winces at the thought of being labelled a “photorealist”; even if some of his pieces may from a distance, have – superficially at least, a quality of the photographic image about them.
His aim is to reproduce as nearly as he can, the world around him and all its facets. To him it’s a matter of close observation, a love for what he does and wanting to share these visual revelations.
CV
He has been working mainly on commissioned pieces for a number of years and is also currently working on speculative pieces for opens submissions and to display in galleries.
Regularly submits speculative pieces into open calls through ArtOpps and directly. These include most
recently The Royal Society of Marine Artists and The Discerning Eye.
Has and continues to take part in events such as arts trails : eg Belper Arts Trail, Sherwood Art Week.
Has 40 year associations and excellent relationships with two gallery owners who show his works in the West Midlands and Cambridgeshire.
In July 2008, John’s painting, Low Tide, was selected for exhibition at the prestigious Royal Watercolour Society & Sunday Times Watercolour Competition exhibition. The piece sold at the exhibition’s preview held at The Bankside Gallery, the then home to the RWS.
In 1997, John exhibited and sold at the Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. His painting of Lichfield Cathedral was selected and sold during that show’s preview.
He has also shown work at the Friends of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Open Exhibition.
Gained a BA in Visual Communication Studies in 1983