Update for this post. To view John Cole’s work click on this link-  https://johncoleart.wordpress.com/

 

Back in April I was contacted by Carl Miller an art collector and his wife Sally. They had acquired three John Cole paintings at an auction in Battle, Sussex. It was fortuitous that good old Google pointed them in my direction to a post on this site. The portrait below is from that post.

I met John in 2001 and we started to explore the fledgling art regeneration scene here in Thanet, neither of us knowing any other artists.

I found John’s work immediately compelling. It had a blend of ‘London School’ ‘Kitchen Sink’ and surrealism and Pop Art. Dark emotional tones mixed with literary and movie references, shades of Freud, Bacon, Bratby, Kossoff.

I felt that I had known John for a lot longer than the two years up until his premature death in 2003. He had great memories of working in London for Alfred Hecht framers and Guilders and his brother continued there for decades.

John didn’t go to art school but be produced work steadily throughout his life. Carl has acquired quite a few strong examples of John’s paintings and intends to show them with his collection at some point in the future. I’m more than happy to help him realise this in the long term.

For now here are a few examples of the work and I am about to start a portfolio site with more biographical details with help from one of John’s old friends, Roger. When the site is up I will include a link in this post and a post with a link on that date.

Man Standing by John Cole Oil on Board