John Connolly

John Connolly trained as an Art teacher at Doncaster and in Drama at Derby University. After teaching Art and Drama for several years, John became founder member and artistic director of Compact Theatre Company and acted professionally (as Harry Connolly) since 1992.

John’s time is divided between painting, acting and writing, with a bias towards painting since 2003. John has written three plays, which have been toured in the UK and in the UAE. John also sings with The Shaydes, previously known as Old Spice.

John has a keen interest in landscape and seascape painting, with the shorelines of South West England in particular providing a rich variety of dramatic subject matter. In 2010 John became a full time artist working in his own studio in Derbyshire.

Artist Statement

"I work mainly with acrylics, but sometimes mix media using anything and everything to achieve the desired effect. I use a variety of found materials, making marks and interesting textures with anything at hand. I scratch, scrape and sometimes flick or throw the paint onto the canvas to create runs and dribbles that suggest waves or interesting cloud formations. In some of my larger paintings, I include collaged materials. Beach sand may be used to create an interesting texture in a landscape or to represent itself within a seascape. Dried grass, twigs, leaves and ferns have also been known to appear in my landscape paintings."