John McConnell

Epithet: Artist (b.1937)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: Born in Belfast in Northern Ireland, he attended the Belfast College of Art between 1953 and 1956. He went on to work as Art Director and Creative Director for advertising agencies in Belfast, London and Toronto, Canada from 1956 to 1970. He also managed to take a year off, which he spent painting full-time in the Isle of Man.

Between 1970 and 1989 he was Head of Art Education at Appleby College in Ontario, before stepping down to work solely on his painting career. After 1989 he was a full time painter in Muskoka Ontario, followed by 7 years of full time painting in Ireland where he quickly established himself, earning many solo and group exhibitions. In 2004 he returned to Canada and settled on Vancouver Island in British Columbia where his paintings are still widely sought after by individuals and corporations alike. He has since had solo and group exhibitions with the Frans Willis Gallery in Victoria and the Main Street Gallery in Sidney.

His paintings are influenced by Irish poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney and the advice and encouragement of the late Canadian painter Harold Town. He believes in the statement by another Canadian artist, Ronald Bloor who says, “Any truly creative work should be a revelation to the beholder, an extension of his own experience of life, not a confirmation of what he already knows.”

Gender: Male

Date of birth: 1937

Place of birth: Belfast, Northern Ireland

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