Ian St. John - 2018
Ian St. John studied for a BA in Fine Art at Falmouth College of Art, and obtained his MA in Fine Art at Newcastle University.
St. John's paintings draw on photographic imagery, whether historical or contemporary, assembling scenes and images that inform his practice. Recently his own photographs of the gardens at Dartington Hall, near Totnes, Devon, have been the inspiration behind a series of oil paintings that are both strange and beautiful.
The process of filtering and editing which is central to his practice can almost be seen as a defamiliarisation; some of the scenes painted can be viewed as instantly recognisable, or slightly mysterious. For St. John, this duality of the familiar and the unfamiliar remains a crucial part of his ongoing dialogue between painting and photography.
St. John’s work has featured in a number of exhibitions including the John Moores Painting Prize (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), the Discerning Eye, and The Threadneedle Prize (Mall Galleries, London).