A B O U T
A R T I S T S T A T E M E N T
I make work about our relationship to flora and fauna, the landscape and our human co-existence with animals linking aspects of the natural world. My studio practice encompasses the mediums of sculpture, drawing, painting and performative works, for a range of contexts in domestic, gallery and public realms which I perceive as relating to my anthropological understanding of landscape and human relationships to the space we share with it.
I am immersed in the physiognomy and character of animals, the reading of character from a face, and make limited editions in bronze. I am interested in the close study of nature and its inhabitants, animal and human and how we inter-relate.
Recent works explore narratives, through historical and contemporary truths and myths, as I find new ways of communicating how we are touched by beauty, the poetics of spaces and places, and our dependence on biodiversity. Since moving to Wales from London, I have expanded my practice, away from direct figuration to embrace issues facing wildlife depletion and fragility of the environment through works which offer mixed metaphors, playing with the ambiguity of reality to leave us a hankering for belonging.
Am o hyd: Still here. As a diaspora, living, raising, and educating my family in the Welsh Language, (the rest of my extended family, my mother, 6 siblings and their families live in England), I sense an affiliation with Pan-Celtic culture and particularly that of Wales, as we confront the abyss of post- colonial melancholy and geo political contraints.
I worked a stone mason in France for 5 years, where I learnt to carve stone and wood.
In a series of works using these natural materials influenced by a recent archeological dig in Wiltshire, I have made primitive hand tools which question the teleology of the object as artefact. This series of humorous “low-tech” implements, are celebratory, the idea being to elevate the handmade.
My fascination for natural fauna, has stretched over time, but has recently centred on birds, particularly corvids and raptors. Connection and interaction from rural first-hand observation, both animate and inanimate, their “dinosaur like” talons and beaks, are beautiful and uncanny. I segregate elements to inform modes of display to inform my aesthetic.
Johnny was brought up on a livestock farm in East Sussex, where his fascination for animals and working the land began. He studied at Camberwell School of Art, London, and won a travel scholarship to Limoges, France, where he trained as a sculptor mason and worked on various historic monuments for 2 years.
He taught Art in schools in Dorset and London from 1994 until 2004. Passionate to make sculpture, he moved to West Carmarthenshire, Wales and has been sculpting as career ever since. The farm with its animals and landscape provides Johnny with a constant source of inspiration for his sculpture and a wonderful place to work.
There is a subtle humour and irony to his work. He portrays his subject matter in different guises, sometimes melancholic, sometimes joyful or moody… for example a prancing goat; a strutting hen; "Julius Caesar" - the ram with his regal Roman nose!
"I want to convey the character of the animal. This can only come through building up a knowledge of its anatomy and behaviour by constantly watching and drawing from all angles until I feel confident to start a sculpture".
Where possible Johnny works from life. Getting close up to to the subject matter enables him to develop a genuine understanding in his modelling of anatomical structure. He observes from all profiles, making drawings and watching light fall on form before starting to model. Johnny keeps the surface lively in the clay and wax sculpture versions, enabling him to capture the essence of the the animal; every mark and detail is reproduced in the cast bronze work.
The alchemy of bronze:
Johnny has always been fascinated by the lost wax process. This ancient technique has changed little over millennia:
"Casting my own work has enabled me to be innovative with surface texture, experimenting with combustible materials which I add to the wax sculpture".
Recent work explores relationships with animals and landscape through a series of "bronze sketches", playing on metaphor through fleeting and acutely observed scenarios.
B I O G R A P H Y
