February 2007, John Hutchinson

John Hutchinson is a retired schoolmaster, his subjects were History and English, who has lived in Jimena de la Frontera and now lives in Estepona. He has taught at International Schools in Singapore, Madrid and Sotogrande and has a certain straightforward attitude to life. For instance, when he wanted a job at Sotogrande he just kept turning up at the gates until they gave him one. He is now a student of the John Wright Jimena class.

With a background of History and English and a commission in the Royal Navy, John seems to have developed strong views on the world in general. His thoughts on Picasso and those who, for their own benefit, extol his work, if accepted by the art world, would slash the value of many investment portfolios. His favourite painters paradoxically include Cezanne, a post impressionist who believed everything in the world was made up of a cone, a sphere, a cylinder or a cube and often commenced a work with one or more of these rigid forms. Cezanne's work influenced, amongst others, Picasso, who painted in a style later called Cubism. Or, perhaps, not paradoxical at all if you consider that Cezanne's resulting work was strong and bold, still lifes and landscapes, realistic results from unrealistic starting points, whereas it could be argued that Picasso started with a realistic subject and ended up with the unrealistic.

So, given John's beliefs and background and his complex character it is surprising that his paintings, in watercolour and ink, are realistic yet often delicate portrayals of scenes around Estepona, and beaches and sky with a touch of idealism thrown in for good measure. Even that statement needs clarification for John's work. Realism in art can mean the emphasis of the ugly or sordid by revelation of a truth. Idealism is the opposite. John manages to emphasise the beauty of a scene without losing touch with reality. He readily admits that there is an "element of luck in every painting", and then goes on to say that he often works and reworks a painting until he is satisfied, sometimes as many as 7 or 8 times getting more pleasure from the reworking than the final effort. He creates his own luck through determination and persistence.

You would expect John to have a long history of painting. Not so. He first put brush to canvas in the year 2000 having decided that painting was one activity he could carry on with well into old age, he has a few years to go yet. He acknowledges that he has had invaluable encouragement and advice from John Wright and more recently from Ken Godfrey in Estepona.