insideKENT Magazine Issue 80 - November 2018 | Page 35

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
KENT ARTIST PROFILE:
JOHN HAWKE
JOHN HAWKE HAS ALWAYS FOUND THE KENT
COUNTRYSIDE TO BE THE IDEAL INSPIRATION FOR
HIS PAINTINGS. insideKENT SPOKE TO JOHN ABOUT
HIS WORK, HIS LIFE AND WHERE HIS LOVE OF ART
FIRST CAME FROM.
If you had to define your art, how would
you describe what you do?
My art is about a celebration of our beautiful
world and how I interpret it. I like to concern
myself with such things as how the light
strikes a craggy cliff face, or how the shadows
of a tree slant across the corner of a shed. I
like the detail of what I see – the texture of the
leaves, the beautiful colours of an autumn
tree on a sunny day, or the ever-changing
patterns of the waves as the tide retreats across
a beach. For me, art is a bit like visual poetry
as I try to capture the essence of what I see
and what I enjoy looking at, however
mundane the subject.
spanning nine platforms with green trains
poking out from underneath the canopy; a
view you can see from the back of the station
and I still have in my mind’s eye.
Mostly it was my dad who encouraged me to
develop my interest in painting with the
common refrain: “now you haven’t looked
properly,” or, “upright lines are upright, John.”
I still have to be careful with that as I have
some problems with my eyesight. I have
always enjoyed painting, but economics and
the need to earn a reliable income got the
better of me and I trained to teach.
How did you become an artist? What is the most unusual, daring, or
interesting commission you’ve ever
received?
Even as a little boy I enjoyed drawing and
painting. I remember my first day at my new
infant school in Loughborough, Leicestershire.
We had recently moved from the South Coast.
I was about six or seven and the teacher put
me on the easel. A while later she popped by
to see how I was getting on and quickly dashed
off before she arrived back with the
headteacher to view the spectacle – I was
painting Brighton station with its three roofs One of the most unusual commissions I have
received was to paint three murals for a café
at the end of Broadstairs Harbour Pier. It started
as a simple request to paint some seaweed on
the front of the counter and morphed into a
Caribbean coral reef with manta rays gliding
by, lurking sharks, clownfish and teeming sea
life. On the side of the counter I painted a
wrecked galleon lying on the bed of the clear
waters of the Caribbean Sea, with divers
investigating and a Great White shark stalking
the divers...if you look carefully there is an
octopus lurking in the in the split remains of
the galleon. As part of the deal I also painted
the big splash: a view of the waves crashing
over the harbour car park just behind the café,
with a small girl in imminent danger of being
soaked.
What is it about Kent that inspires you?
Ah, beautiful Kent! It’s those dramatic white
cliffs and sandy beaches around Thanet and
the beautiful rolling countryside of the Weald
with its mix of woodland, orchards and hop
gardens, and the iconic oast houses and their
roundels poking above the trees.
Where can we see your work?
My work can be viewed at the Broadstairs
Gallery where they have a few of my oil
paintings and prints for sale. Online, my work
can be viewed at www.kentartists.com,
www.artandartists.com, or it can be viewed,
bought and commissioned at
www.johnhawke.co.uk.
35