South London, United Kingdom
John is an Actor turned Artist. The shift in commitment from one discipline to the other has turned his passion back onto painting, so more like Actor returned to Artist.
Born and bred in London he works primarily in Acrylic and favours wood panels to canvas. He works to commissions and personally motivated themes, and has for the past six years been compiling a body of work with the intention of mounting his next solo exhibition .
A lifetime of fascination with humanity and the facial landscape has taken him from portraiture, to the intensity of figurative work, with occasional vacations in Sky and Seascapes, an antidote to inhabited paintings.
In his late teens John abandoned the restrictive formal art training he was being offered and relegated his development in art to a second string position, then embarked on a working life as a jobbing actor.
Twenty-five years later he came full circle - in part satisfied by his achievements and disillusioned with acting's random auditioning process, he re-ignited his artists passion.
"As an actor I was, like so many of my contemporaries, subject to the lottery that is the audition process and despite years of satisfying performing work I wasn't fulfilling my creative potential." - "As an Artist the creative process and the completing of work is so much more rewarding although finding an audience this way round has proved the greatest
challenge to date."
In response to the absence of a lengthy description accompanying his work, John politely states, "I have a belief that great art, especially figurative, and realism does not require a statement, description or essay to accompany it, for me the art IS the statement. These unnecessarily in-depth narrations explaining what the artist intended or what stimulated the painter to produce what we see are redundant to my way of thinking. Save for the title, date and medium used, its the viewers unique interpretation that makes the art so expansive and ultimately enduring".
With regard to his 'process' - "I like to work in isolation and at my own pace, not to a rhythm dictated by the subject/sitters availability or mood. Personally, I am somewhat inhibited by the continuous presence of the subject, in part because I want the piece to be stimulated by memory and impressions prompted only by the sketches and photographic material I have made from my initial inspiration, that way my imagination gets a say in the process".
"My favoured subjects are often busy working people who cannot afford the luxury of spending up to fifty hours sitting patiently, while I try to paint and keep my them amused or just conscious. My enduring delight is the gradual assembling from every dab of paint, contributing to the completed vision."
The two extensive bodies of work John is currently working through have the continuously changing, working titles of ‘Woman Kind’ - a collection of figurative and portrait works featuring women the artist considers beautiful, in the eyes of this particular beholder. Colleagues, dancers, actresses, singers, and dear friends who have influenced him in some way, set simply and focusing on their humanity and female power.
The second collection is titled ‘Waiting’ - a collection of urban figurative portraits inspired by the people he encounters in singular moments of stillness waiting for next moment in their lives to arrive, featuring subjects who would otherwise never be captured and immortalised by paint.
While this process evolves John will continue to try his luck at the UK’s top Painting Competitions and seek that all important patron and gallery to promote his Art.
JohnD 2012
