Bernard, John

John Bernard

I have harnessed and developed my Artistic skills since being in the UK. My work is an expression of my memories, hopes, visions, life experience and perceptions. What started as a past time and channel to communicate my inner feelings, has now become a Business Venture. As a former member of Sola Arts, a charitable Arts enterprise in Liverpool, I have exhibited various art pieces (for viewing only) at a broad range of galleries across the region. In Apr 2011 I have started up as a self employed Artist in Liverpool. My Business name is John Bernard – Artist. I recently secured a start up grant from Liverpool Vision and Elect provided some Business advice.

My Style & Technical Competency – My style is the use of strong colours, exaggerated images, often with a focal point to the art piece, underpinned by a message or moral, which can be subtle or acute.
I have developed my skills in a non-academic way. Rather, harnessed and developed the raw talent that I found I had, when I began to paint and draw as a way to communicate my inner feelings and emotions. This led me to Sola Arts where I was encouraged to explore this form of self expressive & visual communication. I then had the chance to utilise various tools, techniques and materials. This further enhanced my competence.

The Concept & emotive quality – My work is all based around my thoughts, feelings, life experiences, memories and opinions. This quality allows me to produce work that is colourful, meaningful, highly emotive, each with a different message underpinned by the common thread of hoping and searching for peace. My work depicts a range of situations, places, feelings, actions and scenes, all that can motivate the viewer to either question or comment on the images.

My work is not based on life drawings; instead they have almost a dream-like vision presence that in some instances symbolises the rights and wrongs in the world from my perspective.

Artists theme their work and produce an image that is beautiful to view in most cases. In order for my work to be marketable, it must have enough balance to give a message, with a degree left for the viewer to be able to relate to something within it, to them. The art piece then becomes their ownership.

Themes of my First Offerings:
In my work, there is a direct, un-muddled message on each canvas that transcends religion, belief and culture.
Each piece is a carefully crafted and beautifully coloured expression of inspiration captured and presented for the viewer. I have grouped the images into congruent themes as follows:
Hope
The message of hope is as old as civilisation on the African continent; an embedded will to survive and prosper. This shows in each piece of artwork.
Peace
Suffering is natural and human, peace is something that gives us respite from the struggles we encounter in our busy lives and society. These pieces will help you to relax and forget about the struggle.
Contemplative
These pieces allow you to invoke, at will, your thoughts and assumptions of the world around you. Some challenging your life’s perceptions and ideology, others providing a backdrop to some of the key issues plaguing mankind in the past, present and future.