John Thirlwall
Biography
I trained as a painter at Sunderland Art College and as a teacher at Liverpool Art College in the sixties.
I taught in schools in Nottingham and Sunderland and in Manchester Polytechnic post grad. dept. I became Art Adviser for Sunderland LEA, Art Inspector for Staffordshire C.C., and a visiting consultant to Guernsey Education Dept.
I taught on and organised many practical courses for teachers and students, along with art/cultural trips in the UK, Europe and Asia.
I co-authored the 5 LCP National Curriculum Art Teaching Manuals and was a Chief Examiner in art for the A.E.B. at GCSE and A levels.
I have exhibited in group exhibitions throughout the U.K. and was awarded a millennium commission for Newcastle-under-Lyme C.C.
I have had 2 one-person shows, a shared show with David Firmstone, a series of group shows with the Art Advisers Association and some rugby-themed works shown at Twickenham Rugby Museum.
I have work in private collections in the UK, Canada, Turkey, Thailand, the USA and France.
During the 2000’s I have used sport, koi carp, fishing boats, plants, rock forms and landscapes as starting points for my works, often stimulated by travels both at home and abroad.
I have continued to draw from the life model, landscapes and still life arrangements since my student days.
I regard drawing as an essential tool to both record and express things seen and imagined, and as an art form in itself as well as a preparatory investigative tool towards paintings.
My paintings are invariably in oil on canvas, drawings in charcoal or pastel.
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