John Lines was born in 1938 in Rugby Warwickshire, where he still lives. He studied art at Rugby Polytechnic from 1959 and then at York School of Art from 1961 to 1962. John may be the most senior artist, but his appetite for painting has not diminished in the slightest. He is right at the top of his game, remaining one of the very finest exponents of the craft and looked up to by many a younger painter as a true master.
There is never any doubt that a John Lines painting is by him and many of them feature his trademark, quirky figures, often with a nondescript terrier running or straining at the leash. Painted en plein air, all his paintings tell a story and have a great titles that invariably make the viewer smile or sometimes laugh out loud. John often seeks out the backstreets of towns, painting what you might think would be deary subjects, but under his masterly touch, he makes them sing with life, even when painted on a dull, rainy day as they often are.
Besides John’s urban and industrial paintings, he paints the British countryside brilliantly and, don’t be fooled by his humorous titles – he is a true genius saying all without painting everything he shows but doesn’t tell – a rare gift indeed.
John has pictures in private and public collections throughout the world and has held workshops and lectures in Sydney Australia and North Carolina USA. He is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, The Royal Society of Marine Artists and President of Kineton Art Society. John’s preferred mediums are mainly oils and watercolours and his stated aim is to ‘Simply paint life through honest eyes’.
