Biography (Portrait Artist)

Brush Strokes That Sing The Story

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    John has been a professional and commercial and portrait artist for over 40 years and is in collections worldwide. He studied under the late Yuki Tashiro who was the portrait artist for the United States Army while he served in the US military, Yuki painted portraits of famous army personnel such as General Westmoreland. Yuki also belonged to art circles painting side by side with well known artist such as Georgia O'Keeffe when he lived in California.

    John is over grateful as to of having the opportunity and privilege to have studied with such a talented and giving man. 

    John also attended portrait class demonstrations with renowned portrait Artist John Howard Sanden at the Arts Student League in NYC furthering his studies in the art of portrait painting.

    Besides portraits and working in various mediums, John will normally paint his art on rice paper with a combination of both ink and watercolor. This is not an ink as found in a ink pen or used with a printing press, but usually in a stick form that needs to be hand ground on a special stone. The rice paper allows the ink and watercolors to flow into subtle color and shade changes and the effect cannot be achieved with other mediums. It is an extremely difficult medium to work with, but most rewarding in terms of a finished art piece.

     Painting on rice paper is like like painting on a delicate napkin, whereby the napkin would merely disintegrate once you would try to brush over it again. You would end up with a very soggy mess! What this means is that the artist has only one chance, one brush stroke, one calculated effort to get it right the first time in order to express a feeling without forming an overstatement. john love this art form because it allows him to express the subject matters I paint in a spontaneous visual way. It allows the viewer to use his or her own interpretation filling in the blanks and thus heightening there experience with the artwork.

    Having an experimental mind, John creates innovative ways of combining various mediums and techniques obtaining different ways to express his subject matter.

Prints of his work can be purchased online or by contacting  him directly at JohnClancyArt@gmail.com. Please contact the artist for availability and costs for original pieces.