John Sweeney Fork, Maryland, USA |
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Artist: John-S (aka John Sweeney) John grew up in Ireland, and in childhood began early art works in felt tip marker pens on linen handkerchiefs, then at school developed skills in pen and ink and watercolors. He went to Coventry School of Art in England, but after a while opted out and ran his own studio for 5 years using various media: oils, charcoals, photography, silk screens, etching, acrylics, air spray. He is known for his Neon-Celtic prints, and now resides in Fork, Maryland, USA. He has given up using a sketchpad and now only uses a digital camera, taking hundreds of snapshots per month. These are often out of focus as all he cares about is capturing the essence of an image; its shape or the color, from which he later does full sketches and drawing direct on a computer screen, which he refers to as “drawing with light”. After completing a full drawing, some of which contain some thousands of hand drawn shapes, often taking weeks to draw, he prints them out on a large format Epson printer. He does all his prints himself and never farms out any of his work. The inks used are pigment inks, which are vibrant and supposed to last hundreds of years. John’s prints are considered Original Giclee in that they are not a reproduction or copy from another medium. Giclee is the fifth generation of printmaking, following on from Silk Screen 4th, Lithograph 3rd, Intaglio 2nd, Relief 1st, and is often referred to as digital or the ink-jet process. He prints with Ultrachrome pigment inks on Doubleweight matte paper and even titles and signatures his works digitally. His style is very unique and distinct; far removed from the traditional landscape’s fluffy and whimsical style, instead his pictures are bold in shape and color, capturing the essence and distinct iconic shapes of the Maryland Landscape. He only ever does 21 prints of a landscape, that way he is forced to keep creating new works. He thinks that anything in 3 digits is not really a limited edition. He only ever sells 20 of any landscape, keeping the 21st for exhibitions and his personal collection. For further information: www.john-s.com
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