The Monsall Painter Bringing His Work To Victoria Baths This Weekend

An artist who honed his artistic skills by painting the built environment from the balcony of his rented high rise flat in Manchester's Monsall district, will be displaying his works at the city's Victoria Baths this weekend.

John Coyne, will show works which span more than two decades, at the exhibition, on September 9 and September 10 (9am to 4pm).

Levenshulme born John, a sixth form student at the Xavarian College, studied fine art in a foundation year at Salford University and as an undergraduate at Coventry University before completing his masters at one of the UK's top art institutions the Duncan of Jordanstone College, a faculty of Dundee University.

John admits that before he went to sixth form his career choices at school were limited: "My time at school did absolutely nothing for me but when I was doing my A' Level at Xavarian I was taught by a really inspirational art teacher, Raymond Brooker, and from that moment onwards I knew what I wanted to do in life."

The passion showed by his time in sixth form and his further education certainly rubbed off on John, who likes some of the works of both Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci, with the latter keen to advise to young artists that they should learn how to see and realise that everything in nature and life was interconnected.

It's a message that John has taken to heart at the various places he sketches in and around Monsall and Manchester city centre: "On my balcony at home, I feel the connection I have with both the man-made environment and nature both beneath and above me. I love the lines and the shapes, which in essence turns the banal into a thing of beauty.

"Drawing whether using charcoal, pastels or oils play an important role in my work as on paper it lays down quickly the initial image using my own instinct and perception."

It's a concept which takes him many hours of continued practice, including dozens of sketches, which form part of the final composition, but often involving more than one painting, that create a flowing  symmetry to his increasingly acclaimed body of work.

"I form the image by using a combination of memory, sketchbooks and drawings, which once complete can morph into something different, but with a composition to link everything together and essentially by drawing the life out of every image.

"I really like working on paper as opposed to a canvas, which is a bit like a drum and bounces back at you, whereas the paper soaks up the brushstrokes.

"To my mind, painting is not about the content or the subject it's only about the process."

‍John (Instagram @artistjohncoyne) is part of the Pool Arts collective.