John Whittall

(Click here to return to the artist's work.)

John Whittall studied at Camberwell School of Art and then at the Royal Academy Schools under Peter Greenham. His work is held by The National Portrait Gallery, The Brinsley Ford Collection and Westminster Abbey. John has frequently exhibited in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition and has been the recipient of many awards.

The underlying inspiration for John's work is a continuing search for truth in nature. He is influenced by the work of the French landscape painter Corot, who once commented "beauty in art is truth bathed in an impression received from nature", and John's work are no mere factual portrayal of what he sees. The appeal of John's still-life work comes from the mix of his precision, and a looser, freer approach and his portraits are at once perceptive and sympathetic. He has been commissioned to paint sitters such as Lord Blake, Provost of Queens College Oxford.

"John Whittall was a student at the Royal Academy Schools when his paintings first caught my eye. In 1972 I bought two; a self portrait and a still life and all these years later my pleasure in them is still undiminished. The honesty of vision and determined avoidance of borrowed trick and mannerism obvious so long ago have remained constant in his work. His quiet accomplishment always recognised collectors for whom the transitory fashions of contemporary art hold no significance."

Brian Sewell, Evening Standard, London, 1996

Selected Exhibitions

Shown at; Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, New English Art Club, Art in Action, New Grafton Gallery - Portrait Centre

1977 Artists of Fame & Promise, Alpine Gallery

1980 National Portrait Gallery - John Player Award

1980 Opix Gallery

1983 Richmond Festival

1984 national Portrait Gallery, London - John Player Award

1987 Judd Street Gallery

1988 National Portrait Gallery - Commended

1990 Discerning Eye - Selected by Brian Sewell

1992 Mistral Gallery, Foundation for Art, National Trust

1992 Discerning Eye - Selected by John Ward

1994 Ombersley Gallery

1996 Catto Gallery, London

1997 Ombersley Gallery

1999 Catto Gallery, London, Molesworth Gallery, Dublin

2000-2009 Alan Kluckow Fine Art, London

2002-2005 New Grafton Gallery

2004 Ombersley Gallery, Discerning Eye, London

2006 Russell Gallery

2009 Medici Gallery, London in association with Alan Kluckow