John Knapp Fisher Original paintings

(1931-2015)

John Knapp Fisher was born in London in 1931 and studied graphic design at Maidstone College of Art. He painted and exhibited from his seagoing vessel for five years before moving to West Wales in 1965 to become one of the principalities foremost landscape artist.

” My Methods of working, and the subjects I like to paint, have changed little in the thirty-five years since I resolved to make a living at my art. Any changes have been the result of perfecting technique, evolution and refinement. I work – and always have worked, in the initial stages at least – direct from my subject, direct from nature, making drawings and notes of anything that may be in front of me.

Some years ago, I drew with charcoal on canvas or board and painted in oil in front of my subject: also completing may watercolour paintings in situ, sometimes including natural pigments – earth, bogwater, etc, with my paints and inks.

About the time I moved to Pembrokeshire in 1967, I abandoned oil to work solely in Watercolour and ink, and developed my long thin format – again mostly on the spot.

During the 1980s, wishing to work on a bigger scale, I began to enlarge small working drawings by squaring up – completing pictures in the studio where I found greater freedom to interpret away from the subject, to eliminate extraneous detail, to concentrate maybe on a limited area of work, and to expeiment with colour and tone. These larger paintings were usually mixed media, oil paint being added to other pigments.

In 1990 I decided to return to oil paint, although now on paper or board, but the groundwork, ‘On location’ is still as important in my work today as it always has been; watercolours, drawings forming the basis for all my art.

Many people say I do not use much colour. This is not correct, although I do have a limited palette, I am seeking what I call ‘The edge of colour’, where the earth colours and touches of primary colour emerge from the darks and where tonal relationships, quality, texture and chiaroscuro are all important.

My subject continues to be landscapes, seascapes, buildings, boats, figures, animals and fish. I observe, feel, and interpret. I do not copy, nor do I invent, which is why I am not an abtrstract painter in the accepted definition of the term.

I aim to produce puctures that are exciting, have strong compositional form and powerful visual imagery. ”

John Knapp- Fisher, December 1994 ( from his book – John Knapp-Fishers Pembrokeshire. )