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The
darker side of life is also never very far away from John Ross'
work, vividly portrayed in a series of black and white illustrations
including Torture By Words and Torture By Beer. The latter, he says,
links straight back to his childhood experiences: "It refers
to the old mental asylum, as it was called then, near where we used
to live. We used to peer through these bars at these strange porcelain
seats-cum-bathing things. We'd no idea what they were, but we pictured
in our heads that it was something to do with torture. At that time
we were always getting pictures of various aunts who had to go and
get electric shock treatment, so in our minds they became like torture
chambers where these poor individuals were taken in and had dreadful
things done to them. And they came out and never spoke again."
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| Sketches
Of Spain: John Ross' Andalucian Series No 5, Desert Mesa No
2 |
Even
when John makes his escape from West Yorkshire to warmer and sunnier
climes - his hideout in Spain where, of course, he continues to
paint - the darkness which characterises much of his work is never
far away, even if that isn't the original intention! John points
out one painting as an example: "That's Flooded Vines, near
to where I live in Spain. It's the way the vines mirror the sky,
it's wonderful. I love the way the vines are almost sinister in
a way. They almost look like crucifixes, like a whole regiment of
crucifixes, when they're first planted. I didn't want this to have
a sinister context, I just wanted to make it a painting of what
it was..."
In fact, when pressed, John grudgingly admits to a fascination with
the Gothic: "If I were to be honest about it, yes! Working
in Beaumont Park, with all the overgrown Gothic bits in there, you
can't avoid it! Even if I wanted to avoid it, to kick the Gothic
out of my work, stop it and grow up, do something proper and stop
trying to scare people, these things still creep in..."
Sometimes I've the idea that if you're trying to make a living
from painting and drawing it's just bric-a-brac for the bourgeouise.
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John
Ross
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Another
important thing that emerges from John's current show in Halifax
is that he's not one to stick with a single way of working. From
black and white illustrations to paintings, he's done it - and continues
to do it. The reason for this, he says, is simple: "I've got
a fairly low boredom threshold in terms of what I do. At the moment,
I'm tending to work mostly with oil paint. But I do drop back to
the black and whites on a regular basis to do a series of etchings.
Whenever I think I'm settling into one particular way of working,
I swap lines and start doing something else!"
It's a long journey from a Bluecoat at Pontins to becoming an illustrator/cartoonist/painter/artist
and on to his year leading the ongoing restoration of the Victorian
gem that is Huddersfield's Beaumont Park, but happily John Ross
says it all makes some sort of sense. In fact, his recent work in
the great outdoors appears to have come as a refreshing change:
"Sometimes I've had the idea that if you're trying to make
a living from painting and drawing it's making bric-a-brac for the
bourgeouise. And I did sometimes think, 'What am I doing
here?' especially working with some of the prats in the commercial
art galleries. Whereas the year working in the Park I was fascinated:
working in environmentalism, the real politics of the environment
and sustainability. I'm glad I did it."
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| John
Ross: "I've got a fairly low boredeom threshold" |
But
John also admits he's incredibly glad to be back with paintbrush
in hand. And, with that in mind, his eyes are already on the horizon
- beyond his latest exhibition in Halifax or even his adopted hometown
of Huddersfield. With shows in Germany and Spain planned for the
next year or so, he's obviously not ready to stop just yet. He's
even hoping to create some "big, big, BIG paintings. Lots of
texture. Thick paint. Real beasts...Big seas, big skies, big hill.
Big things going on!"
Big plans, too, but with the artistic skills of Huddersfield's John
Ross it's pretty clear that he's up to the challenge...
[All paintings
and illustrations © John Ross]
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