Rhino Painting

Born 1955 in Johannesburg and graduated from the Johannesburg College of Art in 1978. I have lived in Cape Town since 1983. My career has been in Graphic design and have worked in major advertising agencies. In 1994 I started my own design studio in Cape Town, Vernon John Design, in which I remain actively involved. I have painted consistently since matriculating, and have taken part in a number of group and individual exhibitions. I have painted in the studios of Michael Pettit and Julia Teale (Spencer Street Studio). Currently I am winding down the graphic design business and focussing more fully on painting. My work over time shows evidence of a personal exploration of the human form and it’s environment. Sometimes the human presence is within a ‘landscape’ and at other times it is apart. Always, the use of nature is present. I find in using landscape and figures as metaphors for the complexity of our human experience, I’m able to suggest some journeys travelled where the destination is seldom clear, potentially dangerous, but something we are all engaged in throughout our lives. Place, and our relationship with place must inevitably involve a deeply personal experience.