Artist Name:
John Jennings
How long have you been an artist with Creative Future?
I started to paint at the age of 15 in 1965. But it wasn’t until 1983 after a long period in hospital for Bi-Polar disorder that I could work free from conflict and anxiety at least for a while. I found Creative Future through the Impact Art Fair I attended in London five years ago and I set up a gallery page with them. It was with total surprise that Niamh from Creative Future called me to say someone had seen my work and wanted to buy a large painting and some prints. That’s never happened to me before.
Tell us a bit about your art and your creative process:
I have a strong compulsion to paint, fanatical at times. I love paint and colour dominates my work in subject and means. I’ve no idea where any of the paintings come from but they’re still coming and I’m still painting. The artist Roger Hilton wrote, ‘Never write about your inner complicated artistic mechanisms’. So, I place a mark on a canvas or paper and a painting or drawing starts to unwrap and develop. That’s all you get about my inner processes! I’ve a fine art degree, just, but art school precipitated another period of hospitalisation. That was the best part, a far more worthwhile experience than any art school.
I only work on one painting at a time. When I’ve finished I put it away and start another, building up a series. I go back at a later stage, hours, days, months or years to cull them. I paint in gestural painterly colour or hard edge flat colour, polar opposites! but my work is ‘lyrical’ not ‘geometrical’ and so my straight lines are not so straight. I work best in solitude and when a painting is on the go I’m obsessed.
What are you most excited about with regards to Creative Future’s online shop?
Selling some work through Creative future was a first. Previous sales of paintings have always been on a piecemeal basis by chance or commission, usually to people who know me. I’m very excited to be asked to take part in the pilot for Creative Future’s online shop and the opportunity to sell my work to a far wider audience. It’s also important to me to be able to give something back through commission on the sale of my work.
Why is being part of Creative Future’s online shop important to you?
I find it hard to accept praise for my paintings. It’s a great confirmation to be asked to take part in the online shop. From my past experience I know that the people at Creative Future understand and empathise with the needs of artists. They are very professional and the online shop is a high quality sales platform.
The opportunity to sell limited edition prints is also a first for me and something I’ve wanted to do for some time. I’m also excited about exhibiting in a group show together with such a talented and diverse group of artists at the Brighton Dome.
Describe in one sentence what being part of Creative’s Future shop means to you.
Complete acceptance of me and my work just as we are.
Anything else you’d like to add?
The people at Creative Future have never judged me or my painting. They’ve never tried to interfere or meddle with my practice and they’ve worked hard on my behalf. That’s extraordinarily important to me.
