John Ross will be featuring his paintings in THE SCOTTISH EXHIBITION 2023

In recent years his studio interests have shifted from satirical cartoon work to his passion for the landscape as his principal subject where he strives to draw out in oils the capricious nature of landscape in all her myriad of moods, seasons and weathers. In 2016 he was asked to become Artist in Residence at Skibo Castle, the former home of Andrew Carnegie and now centre for the Carnegie Club of G.B. This long-term residency has given him the time to study, internalise and paint the fleeting, flying glory of the Scottish Landscape, Scottish Lochscapes, Sea and Skyscapes.   John Ross’s works are in collections, public and private around the world.

I first met John Ross when I visited the Artworks in Halifax. Traditional art schools were disappearing fast and wiith the full force of his dynamic personality, energy and huge intellect he created an amazing space catering for a whole specturm of needs and talents from Primary School to Ph.D students, it's an incredible achievement.

This is John Ross in his own words:

Well if it’s my artlife and influences I need describe; I first attended the Northampton School of Art  in the September  of 1967. I had just spent that summer as a Bluecoat on Pontin’s Holiday  Camp at Blackpool where I honed my skills as a swimming pool attendant, music hall turn and Beatle Freak. And that was 57 years ago. Tempus Fugit. Tick bastard Tock!

Nutshelling up my stuff over those nearly six decades, in what can only be very loosely described as a ‘career,’ I have entertained myself (and sometimes others)  from a serendipitous junkshop mix of: Drawing, Painting, Printmaking ( copper etching) Scriptwriting, Comedy, Illustrating, Cartooning, Newspapering, Teaching, Walking (with Longdogs,) The Landscape, Ornithology, The Grim North, The Hot South, Poetry, Gardening, The Theatre (of the Absurd,) Singing and sort of Dancing, The Art of Goalkeeping, Fighting, Drinking and now Teatotalism..... all in no particular order or preference.

Born

Leicester 1949

Studied

Northampton School of Art, 1967-69

Leeds Polytechnic Fine Art, BA Hons,1969-72 Royal College of Art, MA (RCA), 1972-75

Awards

Sunday Times Illustration Prize, 1974

Berger Drawing Prize, 1975

Anglo – American Bicentennial Fellowship, 1978-79

Academic Experience

Leeds Metropolitan University                                                                                       

Central Saint Martins School of Art                                                                         

Wimbledon School of Art                                                                                            

Liverpool John Moores University                                                                         

Manchester Metropolitan University                    

Bradford School of Art       

University of Ulster                          

Glasgow School of Art Falmouth School of Art                                 

Norwich School of Art

Salisbury College of Art

San Jose State University, California

California College of Arts and Crafts

University College Los Angeles

University of British Columbia

Royal Academy of Music, London

National College of Art and Design, Dublin

Editorial Commissions

The Sunday Times 

The TimesThe Guardian

The Sunday Telegraph

The Manchester Evening News

The Yorkshire Miner

The New York Times

The San Francisco Sun

Le Monde

Le Figaro

Frankfurter Allgemeiner

Het Parool

Solo Exhibitions

The Mordant Drawings (Achim Moeller Gallery, London 1974)

Double Top You Want, Madame Recamier (Cite des Arts Internationale, Paris 1974)

What Made Josh Tetley Famous (Berger House, London 1975)

Of Malt Shovels and Metaphysics (Mirandy Gallery, London 1976)

The New Fossils (J. Walter Thompson, London 1976)

Looking Black over Bill’s Mother’s (Thornton Gallery, Bradford 1977)

The Black Dog and the Wild Turkeys (San Jose State University Gallery, California 1979)

Watch out Son this is Cougar Country (UCLA Gallery, California 1980)

The Ancient Wing (McCann Erikson Ltd., London 1981)

As Common as Muck (Bolton Museum and Art Gallery 1983)

Nils Illegitemae te Carborundum (Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax 1989)

Skating on Thin Ice (The Norwich Gallery 1995) 

Faith, Hope and Charity Revisited (National Museum of Fine Arts, Valetta, Malta 1996) Words and Pictures (Mall Gallery, London 1996)

Gnawing at the Bones of Contention (Huddersfield Art Gallery 1998)

Trumpeting up the Dusty Schism of New Radicalism (Workhouse Gallery, Chelsea 2000)

Dog Years (Volksbank Gallery, Tubingen, Germany 2001)

Black Heat and Dangerous Orange (Unicorn Gallery, London 2002)

From the University of Doubt To The Bulging Sumpters of Bercium (Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax 2005) Der Britische Bilder (A.Paul Weber Museum, Ratzeburg, Germany 2008)

The Song of the Earth (Frost & Reed Gallery, London, 2008)

The Song Of the Earth, Part 2 (Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax, 2009)  

Drawing Blood and Spitting Thistles (St.Paul’s School Gallery, London, 2011)

The Pig in Art ( The Artworks 1830 Gallery, Halifax, 2015)

The Ancient Hills of Almeria (Almeria University, Spain, 2016)

Two Man Exhibition

The Trains of Thought have left the Rails of Reason - The Black and Blue Period (The Mall Gallery, London 2006) With Paul Slater

Collections

Victoria and Albert Museum

Imperial War Museum

Vancouver City Museum

Leicester City Art Gallery

Leeds City Art Gallery

Bolton Museum and Art Gallery

Ralph Steadman

J. Walter Thompson Collection

Korn Ferry Collection

The Late Sir Stephen Spender

The Late Dame Elizabeth Frink

The Late Dennis Compton

Animated Films

Co-scripted Angry George Irons for Channel 4 (Winner of the British Film Institution Award for Animation 1994)

Co-scripted The Ticker Talks for BBC TV (Winner of a BAFTA Nomination 1996)

Worked with director Steven Harding–Hill on projects for Aardman Animation, Bristol

Publications

The Biggin Hill Frescoes (Lion and Unicorn Press, London 1975)

Illustrated The Correct Sadist by Terence Sellars (Lane Publications, New York 1980)

The Bison (Hanborough Parrot Press, Oxford 1988)

Words and Pictures or as Quiet as an Eel in a Barrel of Tripe (Retrospective Catalogue, Arcturus Publishing London 1996)

The Garden of Earthly Delights In collaboration with composer Simon Bainbridge, wrote libretto for BBC Proms Commission. (First performed Cadogan Hall, London, 2013)

Individual Projects

The Artworks Independent Art & Design School, Shaw Lodge Mills, Halifax. Launched in 2008 The Artworks is set in a massive historic mill setting. We work from Primary School to Ph.D, collaborate with universities and the NHS, we have a 1st rate multi purpose gallery set in a former weaving shed. Further to this we pride ourselves on our policy of being open to all. www.theartworks.org.uk (2008 - present) 

Royal Academy of Music Working with Simon Bainbridge, Professor of Composition at R.A.M. organised an annual collaborative film project between students of R.A.M. (undergraduate, post-graduate and Ph.D) and those of The Bristol School of Animation, University of the West of England.(2003 to present) The results of these collaborations have been shown to a wide audience and to great critical acclaim, academic and professional. (2005 - 2014)

Friends of Beaumont Park A central fund-raising and project managing involvement in the ongoing restoration of Beaumont Park, a glorious 29 acre Victorian park in the Pennines, on the outskirts of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. (1998 - 2010).