John Harris

Further to graduating in Painting and Ceramics at Cardiff College of Art, John taught briefly in Wales.

March 1964 saw John venture into Central Africa as the first art teacher in a Nyasaland High School.  His first hurdle was persuading the pupils to depict native Africans in their paintings, something they had long considered the white man’s preserve.  At this time, John’s landscape suddenly broadened from the deep valleys of South Wales to the vast open panoramas of Africa, and his serious attempts at semi abstract interpretation of these dramatic scenes were often met with unhelpful comments from his colleagues at Lilongwe Rugby Club.  “Culture” was an improbable aspect of life in the bush, being 54 miles from the nearest town on a good earth road. 

Returning to the UK in 1976 and by now a family man, John found it increasingly difficult to fit his painting aspirations around a teaching career.  Thus having established a following in several UK galleries, in 1986 he resigned his post as Head of Art at  Redditch high school and plunged full time into painting.  Essentially a landscape artist with an abiding interest in subtle light, John’s atmospheric watercolours and detailed wildlife studies have found  a wider market in the UK and in Africa, Australia and the Middle East where he annually travels on working holidays. 

Married to Stella and with two sons (both illustrators) John lives in Inkberrow, midway between Stratford upon Avon and Worcester, where he enjoys painting the muted tones of the English  countryside but, like the swallows, he prefers to winter in Africa.