Meet the artist
John is a film and television director, author and artist from in Bangor, Gwynedd. He was raised along the Menai Straits, surrounded by a mixture of urban and rural life.
A love of football and rugby like most people, it was John’s love of film and art that particularly stood out. This creative aspect was there from the beginning but it would not be until his late 20’s that he would start his career in film, and even later that his artwork would become so sought.
John grew up in a council house with his mother and three siblings. They were poor but they made the best of it and never felt they missed out. John would draw on the back of opened envelopes and scraps of paper once his pads were full, and would sketch footballers, actors or things completely made up.
He would practice and develop techniques by reproducing and copying great masters and famous artworks he would find in books from the library.
Joining the army at 16 years old, John served as a Royal Engineer. During his time in the military John often used his artistic skills to sketch the people and landscapes, as well as decorating the rest areas and squadron bars.
John went on to read Film at Bangor University, before going on to further this with postgraduate studies over the years. During his undergraduate studies he made short films and developed an obvious style in his work which he took with him when he started to direct television programmes.
Always using his skills with a pencil to storyboard his ideas, John would finally sit down and begin to produce dedicated pieces of work for no other reason than he wanted to. It gave him a way to work in the medium’s and use the techniques he had developed in his early life, and produce work he had always wanted to.
John with his painting of Harry Billinge MBE ‘The Sapper’, and his ‘I want it all’ series centrepiece.
