Scottish Charity No: SC005226
John has been constructing models from a very young age. He remembers that as a small child he would watch his father, who was a joiner, at work, and would often pinch his nails to use them to put together his own constructions, which he made from cardboard.
John is completely self-taught, and while he sometimes makes paintings he finds that his three dimensional work is more successful and satisfying for him to make, and the results more interesting to look at. He likes to look at things from different angles, which is something he feels he can't do with painting.
Most of John's research is done in books sourced from libraries. He will study something for a long time before he will start to make it in model form, looking at its history and the culture and political climate surrounding it.
Last year John travelled to the Peruvian Embassy in London to present a model he had made of a traditional Peruvian house to the Minister for Arts and Antiquities. He was inspired to make this model after listening to a group of musicians from the Andes playing on the streets of Glasgow.
John's talents for construction are not limited to making models. He spends much of the time that he is not in his studio renovating a full size house!