About Jonny Church

Painting has always been there – ever since I was a child. It’s a way of getting my head to do different things and gives me space to think. I returned to art, after a major loss, some years ago and the creativity provided me with the new, positive outlook I needed. I began by painting portraits and then branched out into buildings and wider cityscapes – all of which I love to paint. Starting life as a scientist, I moved into architecture, which has profoundly influenced my pictures of cityscapes and buildings. I love the way buildings can inform and command a space. When you are in the middle of a city, they have the power to force you to look up to see the details which the architects and builders left behind and, if you are lucky, the blue beyond. Colour and light captivate me too. I’ve always found blues and greens calming, uplifting and positive colours. That’s why they feature so heavily in my artworks. The most dominant feature I look for in a subject or object is how the light plays - the way it reflects, refracts, diffracts and the way it bends things. I love airbrushed flat colour. It allows me to produce more graphics-led paintings of buildings and other man-made structures. Acrylic airbrushes are great for backgrounds, but the detail, especially in my portraiture, is produced by hours and hours of painstaking work with tiny brushes. My artworks are predominantly based in forms of realism. For example, at a distance some of my portraits look like photographs but when you get closer you can see the fine brush strokes and other intricate work that goes into creating them. The graphic art is different to this, less detailed and precise but still realism, and at the other end of the spectrum is the minimalist art which uses the smallest number of lines and colours but still faithfully represents, yet individually interprets, the subject. I am an optimist who perpetually learns and evolves. Positive change-makers inspire me. My education was in physics, architecture, and philosophy, the latter helping me to develop a philosophy of individualism, making us who we are and potentially providing the base for true equality. This philosophy of equality was recently translated into a children’s book. As an artist, I am self-taught and my artistic influences range from Cezanne to Michael English, Alex Katz to Glen Baxter, and Adrian Tomine to Edward Hopper. My personal influences include Bill Nighy, Ben Folds, Eddie Izzard and Richard Curtis. Hence the minimalist portraits. Ultimately, I want to set up a charitable fund to develop robotics for those with lower limb disabilities and to design and build holiday properties for those with lower limb disabilities to enjoy with their families without having to be excluded from activities due to their disabilities. My hope is that by selling on Artfinder I will be able to increase this fund.