About John Fieldhouse

John’s process

I have no set painting regimen. My process is not about a daily number of hours notched up. It’s more a series of fervent, intense periods during which I am searching for the elusive 'sweet spot'.

The marriage of paint on paper; I want the light to refract from the pigment, not just light as a contrast to dark.

Once the subject matter has been assimilated in outdoor sketches and in my mind, then it’s time to explore the material further; to condense, intensify, organise and transform it with the idea of discovering its full potential as a painting.

Non-essentials are eliminated and only essence remains. Memory tends to sift and sort out into a kind of unconscious selection, with the result that the mind is not cluttered by trivia that might weaken a picture's total impact. The important elements are retained and emphasised and the unimportant things that do not contribute to expressivity are subordinated or even omitted altogether. — JF