John Lincoln

John was born in Canada in 1944, the son of a serviceman (RAF) and travelled widely as a youth. He has been a
self-taught, part-time painter since the age of twelve and although he joined the RAF at the age of 17 to become an aircraft technician, very quickly realised his preference for making images rather than connecting up 'generators and explosive cockpit bolts'.  For the last 5 years of his RAF career he was 'misemployed' as an exhibition graphic artist, preparing panels for RAF recruiting exhibitions.

On leaving the RAF John joined the Civil Service as an Illustrator, then Graphic Designer followed by Exhibition Designer, for the Ministry of Defence.  He subsequently moved to the Nature Conservancy Council (later renamed English Nature), as a publisher and Marketing Manager and latterly as a natural heritage interpreter and arts developer.  John is now retired from the Civil Service and works full-time as a painter.

Apart from one or two nights a week working with the London artist Kristin Berge in the years '66 to '71, John is self-taught.  The emphasis in his early years was on non-figurative work concerned with what Cottie Burland said of his one-man show in the Chenil Galleries  "One finds it an approach to the enormous realities through the immensity of meaning in the small".  (Art Review, February 1969).

However it was not long before he returned to his original interest of his early teen years, that of the English countryside and nature.  Since the early eighties John has concentrated on dealing with his response to the landscape, its natural features and botanical form.  He works in many mediums and experiments constantly on new ways of rendering his personal vision. 

Artist's statement
John says, "My vision concerns the merging of observation and intuition born of years of application, imagination and deep reflection on nature.  Nature provides the inspiration and starting point of the images, which vary from close-up floral forms to wider scoped natural features seen in the countryside. Light, texture and colour are significant characteristics of the work, which is intended to invoke feelings of mystery, awe and wonder at the infinite variety of shape, colour and meaningful symbolism".

Membership of organisations
John is a Fellow of The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
http://www.rsa.org.uk/

He is a member of
Art on the Map, Lincolnshire Open Studios
http://www.artonthemap.org.uk/

Lincolnshire Artists' Society
http://www.lincolnshireartistssociety.org.uk/

John Clare Society
http://www.johnclare.org.uk/

Others' comments

John's fellow-artist, Stuart Goodacre says "John's work with the natural image enables us as onlookers to re-interpret our perception and understanding of our natural surroundings and to think in new and different ways about our relationship with the landscape."

Kathryn Moore - Art & Soul

"...the first thing you notice about John's work is the strength of colour; secondly, a powerful source of light emanating from behind silhouetted shapes; and thirdly, on closer inspection, is the use of textural surface"

John Yimin - Outsider Art Info web site

"John Lincoln has discovered the fire of nature by standing in its flame, the beauty of nature by opening his eyes and heart and the stillness of nature by riding along as a willing partner. By stepping into the stream of history and wrapping his arms around the parade of life, Lincoln creates his work; the colors may be nature's but the lines are his."