Hello and welcome to my site

As you’re here I’m guessing you’d like to know a bit more about me! Since a child, I was always involved with drawing and painting (by good fortune I grew up only a hundred yards away from the local art school) so, I was able to enlist in courses from an early age. This helped my passion for art blossom and set my course for life.

In 1977 I graduated from Camberwell School of art with an Hon. Degree in fine art and in 1980 completed my formal training at the Royal College of Art in bronze casting. What an exciting year of learning. This craft opened horizons and I was exposed to the works of established British sculptors such as Lynn Chadwick, Philip King and Bernard Meadows, cumulating in a student visit to meet Henry Moore at his studio in 1980.

Although busy supervising his team of technicians on one of his monumental sculptures, he did make time to have a chat with us; To which, one of our party ventured to ask the great man what advice he would give an aspiring sculptor.

“Well” he pondered the question, and with his no nonsense Yorkshireman manner replied “Get up in the morning, never turn down honours and never turn down work!”.... Still working on the honours.

Later on I worked at the Royal Opera house as a prop maker. It was here that I started to experience the magic of it, developing additional skills and knowledge. The lyricism of the music and visual spectacle of theatre was so influential in shaping my outlook. So much so, that I used my fascination with models, toys and props to create painted dramas of epic battles and mythic tales.

Additionally I enjoy identifying iconic two dimensional paintings and graphic works to transform into three dimensional sculptures. It began with ordinary playing cards, then bringing the famous Fellini film poster “La Dolce Vita” to life as well as Picasso’s “Weeping Woman”.

Next came an ambitious project to represent Vincent Van Gogh’s seven self-portrait paintings as sculptures. These sculptures were then painted to mimic the two dimensional counterparts adding texture and depth to their surfaces.

This is my homage to his wonderful self-portraits.

However, not all my works of art are this serious! In my studio garden I decided to construct a fountain. But not any old fountain would do, as such I came to the conclusion that only a Moet & Chandon champagne bottle spouting champagne two metres high would do. What else could I do…

Thanks John