I was born in York in 1944.

I moved to Cornwall as part of the hippy movement and lived in the sand dunes for the summers of '67 and '68, moving onto London for 5 years and then back to Cornwall before returning home to Yorkshire.

I have always been a very creative person, from making leather clothes that were sold down the King's Road in London in the mid 70's to collecting and renovating old Carousel horses and antique furniture.

I am a self taught artist and have been painting full time since 2004.

Possessing a love of the sea, this appeared the perfect subject, constantly changing in nature and mood, providing an endless template with which to work. I am also drawn to the textures, shapes and colours of the surrounding landscapes, woodlands and streams.

Painting in mixed media I often use acrylic, watercolour, gouache and ink within the same painting, allowing the materials to run and bleed into each other, with the addition of collage, materials collected whilst walking or beachcombing, to create added texture.

I use photos that I have taken whilst out walking, on holiday or during one of my many visits to the Yorkshire coast. These are never copied exactly but used as a reference, particularly to observe the effects of light on water.

I have recently diversified to creating assemblages and birds from the many items I find whilst beachcombing.

Painting for me is not only about pleasure, it's a challenge to create a piece that hopefully reflects and captures the essence of a subject, and if people can sense and appreciate those aspects of my work I feel I have in part, achieved my goal.

Please feel free to have a look around my website to see samples of my work and where you can view them.

Many thanks

John Thornton