ABOUT JOHN

I like my paintings and drawings to be accessible to as wide an age range as possible. I don’t see why a painting can’t appeal to the art aficionado as well as the uninitiated, the young as well as the old. This may have something to do with my time working in art education. My art tries to deal with a number of paradoxes; how to produce images that can be both playful and serious, abstract and figurative, complex yet simple.

 

The paintings I have produced over the past decades may have changed in terms of imagery; ranging from skull motifs to dense crowd scenes and repetitions of monkeys or birds. However, they share a number of preoccupations – the use of rich colours with strong geometric or decorative features often combined with anthropomorphic elements – with birds or animals taking on human characteristics, with some looking angry or melancholic while others look joyful or mischievous.

 

These features continue to play a part in recent developments such as my Adam & Eve, Angels and William Blake related pieces. This work grew out of collaborations with other artists, resulting in  a series of touring exhibitions which explore the time honoured narratives and symbolism associated with these themes.