About John Wike

Making Art is my way of giving creative expression to subjects that I think are interesting and important. Seasonal transitions, movement, and impermanence are some things that attract me as a painter and photographer. My influences are not as much from traditional art, but more from modernism and abstraction. I see my work as a contemporary response to organic, natural forms with an emphasis on color, and designing a two dimensional space. There are no straight lines in nature.

In the outdoor world are the timeless qualities of harmony, balance and integration that are needed here and now. Birds and forests forever! They are always there for me no matter what else is going on in this world.

My human subjects are absorbed practitioners, with a single pointed focus on their purpose, and I find a kinship to these musicians, dancers and classical singers. My themes are frequently revisited but not strictly forced as a series.

It is easy to go on and on with a personal statement, but adding too much of that can become tedious. A visual expression will rise or fall on its own merits and the words cannot save it. A friend once said that she painted to find out what it looks like. That is just about right.

"The moving finger writes; and having writ moves on: nor all your piety and wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it."

~ Omar Khayyam

Member, Pastel Society of America

Studied with Francis Hamilton, Dean Nimmer, and Bernie Lacasse at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. Also studied at the Montserrat College of Art, Beverly Massachusetts.

Past gallery exhibitions:

Pastel Society of America, New York NY

Pompanoosuc Mills, Nashua NH

Coolidge Center for the Arts, Portsmouth NH

Vaughan Gallery, Portsmouth NH

South Shore Art Center, Cohasset Mass

Newburyport Art Association, Mass

McGowan Fine Art, Concord NH

New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester NH

N W Barrett Gallery, Portsmouth NH

Academic Artists Association, Springfield Mass

Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester Vt

The Picture Place, Portsmouth NH

Center for the Arts, Sunapee Region NH

The Art Center, Dover NH

Two Villages Art Society, Hopkinton NH

Collections:

Dean Witter, Harris Graphics, Bank East, RCA Corp, Chubb Life, GTE,

Northeast Credit Union, NH Savings Bank, Sise Inn,

New England Mutual Life, Bank of New Hampshire, State Farm,

Numerous private collections