Works on paper

John has produced hundreds of works on paper over a period of time spanning more than 50 years. These include the few remaining examples of a prodigious young boy’s drawings in Africa in the late 1950s, as well as later pencil sketches, cross-hatchings in biro, ink and coloured pencil, as well as paintings in guache, egg tempera and watercolour. His style evolved over time from an early sober realism to a dreamy “Magical Realism” with references from mythology and legend, poetry and literature to symbolist and psychedelic elements inspired by 1960s and 70s prog rock music.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, his output included darker themes and depictions of the grotesque, before reconnecting with his pre-1980 oeuvre by the mid-1990s.

As with oil paintings, one of the unique factors of his work has remained the rejection of mass-produced materials in favour of mixing his own saphonised oils, painting milks and caseins, as well as egg tempera, which he uses for works on paper in combination with his self-made guache paints.