John is now based in North East Scotland, in Aberdeenshire, after 27 years in the South West in Dumfries and Galloway. His focus remains birds and mammals in the landscape, in their habitat, celebrating the wonderful, life enhancing diversity of creatures that we share this planet with.
First hand observations and field drawings with watercolour or pastel are the basis for all his work, though he prefers painting in pastel, acrylic or oils in the studio where he is looking to create something fresh and new that wholly embraces the initial experience but then takes that elsewhere, strengthening the initial intention and exciting the artist within.
John is an experienced and enthusiastic tutor, running wildlife drawing courses for the Field Studies Council and Art Safari, teaching weekly classes in life drawing, portraiture, still life and landscapes as well as specialist workshops in pastel techniques. He was a tutor on John Busby’s Seabird Drawing week for a number of years.
He was made a member of the SWLA in 2007, the same year that he won the Swarovski/Birdwatch Bird Artist of the Year Award and the first of his two books with Langford Press, ‘Between the Tides’, was published. John has subsequently appeared in many other publications and his second book‘Drawn to the Edge’was released in 2013.
He has worked to commission for all the major wildlife charities, participated in the Artists for Nature Foundation project to Sark and the SWLA/BTO Flightlines project.