John Maule-ffinch is essentially self-taught, though did have a period at Leeds Art College studying interior and furniture design some 45 years before taking up watercolour painting after retirement.
John started painting in a traditional style and the usual landscape and predominantly cityscapes subjects. However, as time progressed he became aware of the many alternative approaches and techniques that were being used by contemporary watermedia painters and in 2020 began actively pursuing a change in his methods and subjects. He is particularly interested in the ordinary, mundane images of everyday life, capturing them in a chiaroscuro influenced manner with an abundance of lifting-out and re-applying glazes of different colours, hoping the shapes, blocks of colour and mere indications of objects created in this manner endow the images with an interesting quality. Additionally, mixed media has caught his attention, finding it exciting and fun to take traditional subjects and manipulate watercolour, oil pastel and acrylic paint and ink with pallet knives, droppers and various scrapers. Nevertheless, John will occasionally indulge himself with a traditional watercolour.
