Part 1

I'm sorry I've been away - I hadn't expected to be so stunned by moving.  For three weeks I thought of nothing but packing, shredding, binning, tipping and cleaning.  Result?  Aching hands, painful shoulder, sore back and three and a half containers of stuff gone into store - does that mark a successful or unsuccessful life - would more - or less be better?

At present, I am a nomad and that has made internet access both turbulent and traumatic - and in any case, I was too knackered to think.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy Part 1.  Part 2 won't be far behind, now that I'm settled, for the time being, in a delightful oasis.

Part 1

Johnny’s evolution into the painter he is today has been neither conventional, nor paved, nor privileged.  Neither is he one to bemoan his struggle, often against the odds to realise his passion to paint and he will be first to say, ‘It’s circumstance that shapes events,’ and the circumstances of his life have shaped the artist he has become.

The first seven years of his life spent in the village of Wortley, on the outskirts of Sheffield, laid the foundation for his enduring love of nature.  It was idyllic: a time of security; when he was the centre of the universe in a matriarchal family, who robbed of their menfolk by the Second World War, took delight in cosseting this precious boy.  His best friends were the vicar’s son and the young Earl of Wharncliffe, from whom he had his first introduction to portraits, gilded and huge, hanging in the dark corridors of Wortley Hall.

At the end of the war, his father returned home and the idyll was shattered.  John was displaced as his father re-occupied centre stage.  Riding a donkey to school, playing in the water lift at Wortley Hall and listening to fairy tales, were replaced by a prefab in Rotherham, parents who were distracted by their own concerns and the relentless need to survive the hostilities inflicted on him as a sissy outsider at a slum school in Dalton.  It was here that John’s independent and self-reliant nature was fostered.

From now on John’s home life was turbulent and as his parents’ marriage collapsed, he ricocheted between Rotherham and Bridlington, finding his own ways to cope.  There were extended periods of truancy.  In Bridlington he spent wagging time walking the cliffs and shore, absorbing the colours and texture of the coast.  And after school, when he did attend, he would escape to his room with a book from his father’s library. It was here that he met Edward Lear and as he copied Lear’s illustrations and drawings, so the corner stones were being laid for Johnny’s enduring love of topographical drawing and painting, his sense of fun and the ridiculous.

Through books, the misfit boy had found his means escape and solace. He began to study and learn about early English water colours and to experiment himself.  It was the start of his lifetime love affair with painting and watercolour, in particular.  His imagination was fired by the lives of Impressionist painters.  He loved the romance of struggling artists and passionate lives; of misfits and the misunderstood and he longed to be part of it.

Despite his fragmented education, John’s talent for Art was recognised in school and finally encouraged, but it was too late.  By now, the fifteen year old young man had endured enough and refused to study for his O levels in preparation for Art School, preferring instead to secure his independence by getting a job as a farm labourer.  Unfortunately, despite Johnny’s enthusiasm and efforts, after accidentally releasing hundreds of chickens and being unnecessarily creative in ploughing furrow patterns, the farmer felt that it wasn't the job for him and gave him the sack.

Showing a rare interest in his son, John’s father organised an apprenticeship with a firm of high class painters and decorators in Bridlington.  Here John learned about paints, preparation and the skills and techniques that have underpinned his eventual career as a fine artist.  However, John’s fierce independence asserted itself and at eighteen, now legally an adult, he left his apprenticeship to become a beach photographer for the summer season in Bridlington.  Between seasons and unemployed, he continued to paint.

By twenty-three, married with his first son and working as a painter and decorator, John was increasingly certain that his future was as an artist and in 1963, took the decision to move to Leeds.  There, he felt, was everything he needed to learn: art galleries, exhibitions, the university and a cosmopolitan community: not available in the Bridlington of the time.

He took advantage of it all, working hard as an ‘on the lump’ painter and decorator for Wimpey’s to keep his family, now of four and to pay the mortgage.  In his precious free time he developed his craft and skills.  It was a period of experimentation, with forays into sculpture and through which, he had his first break.