John hopes to build on his talents as a wildlife artist (From Worcester News)

John hopes to build on his talents as a wildlife artist

10:19am Monday 16th January 2012 in Mike Pryce By Mike Pryce

FOR someone who scored an F in GCSE art, John Jeffries has had something of a second coming.

Because rising from the ashes of that exam result 20 odd years ago is the phoenix of a very talented wildlife artist.

Which isn’t bad for a builder. I’ll just explain how those disparate facts fit together.

Having shown himself completely devoid of any artistic ability at school, John joined the family building firm and seemed set for a career with bricks and mortar, digging out footings and tiling roofs.

He then had a spell on long-term sick leave, during which he took up painting – and now has lions and tigers and zebras coming out of his ears, so to speak. Which will probably surprise his old school mates at Chantry High in the village of Martley, near Worcester, where he couldn’t paint a shed.

John was born 38 years ago and raised on the family’s Hillend Farm at Martley, first attending the local primary and then the area high school. At neither establishment did he exhibit any arty leanings and so the duffer exam grade was not totally unexpected. But what has followed has surprised everyone, not least himself.

John said: “I began sketching while I was off long-term sick from the building trade, just for something to fill the time.

“I started to get quite interested in it and so decided to enrol for some night classes in the art and design department of Worcester College of Technology.

“However, they weren’t really in drawing, more in 3D art such as sculpturing.”

But back at home his painting was starting to get serious and when he returned to the building site, his days were full indeed.

He’d get up about 5.50am and paint in a room at his home at Stanford Bridge in the Teme Valley until about 7am. Then he’d do a full day’s building work before returning home and painting until the early hours of the next morning.

“My subjects were always animals,” he said. “Horses, dogs, cats, domesticated animals.

“I wasn’t doing wild animals at that stage and I’ve never been interested in landscapes.”

Eventually John had painted a few pictures he felt confident in showing to other people. But there was an iceberg ahead. He took them along to the Paint Box in Worcester, where proprietor Keith Marshall-Walker has always been a sound source of advice for emerging artists, and...whoops...

“Looking back, I can understand now why the reception I got was not great,” he said.

“I was told to go away and try again. It was hard at the time, being rejected, but it made me all the more determined to succeed.”

John did go away and try again.

He sat down at home, changed his subject matter and just look at him now.

He said: “I decided to concentrate on wild animals, partly because they are more unusual.”

So taking his camera off to the West Midland Safari Park at Bewdley, John began snapping away at anything that took his fancy. Books and magazines were another source and soon his Stanford Bridge studio began seeing images of lions and tigers, zebras and orangutans taking shape.

“I’ve never really had an art lesson as such,” the daytime builder explained. “So I have had to develop a technique myself. All my work is oil on canvas. I did try watercolour, but didn’t find it right for me, so oil it is.”

In the summer of 2011, John exhibited at a regional art festival at the Hundred House Hotel, Great Witley, near Worcester, and he hopes to find other local outlets for his output.

With the building trade quiet at present, it’s a useful second string to his bow. Very unexpected too.

After all, would you think of ringing Rembrandt to knock up a two-storey extension to your semi?