At age 10, John A Hawken’s journey in art began. Buying a small set of watercolours was very expensive then, and the brush that came with the set didn’t last very long, so John began shaping his own brushes from feathers shed from the mollyhawk, just like an old fashioned quill.
Always having found realism boring, after many exercises with landscapes, still life, sailing ships and aeroplanes, John’s main inspiration is a love of colour and shapes. Using his imagination and events from the outside world, painting gives him the necessary outlet to express his visions. He has found great inspiration also with the likes of Pablo Picasso, L.S. Lowry and Frances Hodgkins enjoying the cubism form, the life and meaning and the impact – respectively. During his working life, John would often experiment with painting, using printing inks and the back of printing plates. As you can imagine, this had to be a very fast process as printing ink dries very quickly. He had loads of fun with this. When it comes to mistakes and advice for new artists, John says: “Just accept it happens. Don’t panic – have confidence you can do it. Don’t sweat the small things, I have found 98% of the time it always works out.” Multi-talented, John also plays rhythm guitar and writes music and tells us he is still receiving royalties for the song ‘Maybe I’m Dreaming’.
Watch John's interview on 'The Beat Goes On' here.
