John Barnard
Artist's Biography
A South African now living in the UK, John Barnard cannot remember a time when he did not revel in drawing and painting. Self-taught, he considers himself the Eternal Art Student ...... Isn’t it said, “ You only start learning when you know everything!?”
With inspiration drawn as much from Disney as from Dali, from Marvel as from the Old Masters, it is small wonder that he is equally as comfortable with a pencil creating detailed, photo-realistic wildlife drawings as he is doing mixed media surrealistic work.
He believes that his most valuable art lesson was learned in the African Bushveld, where the combination of intense light and vibrant colours peculiar to that region impressed upon him that most valuable asset, the ability not just to look…..but to see!
His illustrations for a children's book (which he wrote) led to a series of commissions for wild-life illustrations for a specialist garment manufacturer. These appeared on a range of sweaters and garments for export world-wide and sold in nature reserves such as Kruger National Park, Hluhluwe Game Reserve and Mala-Mala Game Park.
Commissions were also undertaken for portraits of several leading political figures and for a variety of commercial illustration work.
Constantly experimenting with a variety of materials and techniques in an effort to create imagery which LIVES in the eye of the beholder, John’s personal quest for excellence inclines him to measure his progress not so much against the work of others ( as challenging as this can be! ) but rather against his own best efforts.
Take a look at...
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About my art