John Copnall
| John Bainbridge Copnall | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 February 1928 Slinfold nr Horsham, Sussex, England |
| Died | 9 June 2007 (aged 79) London |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | Sir John Cass College, Royal Academy School |
| Known for | Painting (Landscape & Abstract) |
| Awards | 1988 Elected member of The London Group |
John Bainbridge Copnall (1928–2007) was an English artist best known for his abstract expressionist painting of richly coloured stylised realism, often on a grand scale. He was also a teacher of painting for twenty years at the Central School of Art and Design in London.
John Copnall was born in Slinfold, a village near Horsham in West Sussex. His father was the eminent sculptor Edward Bainbridge Copnall (1903–1970) whilst his mother Muriel, his uncle and aunt Frank and Theresa Copnall were all enthusiastic amateur artists. Another uncle, Hubert Copnall (1918–1997), was also an artist and sculptor, although he spent over thirty years farming, having been initially so required as a World War II conscientious objector. His paternal grandfather EW Copnall was an early photographer and artist.
Copnall showed early promise in drawing and his strong draughtsman skills would be at the heart of his work throughout his painting life. At the age of eighteen he began studies at the Architectural Association in London. This proved a poor choice of a career as Copnall lacked the required mathematical ability and used the excuse of his National Service to leave the profession permanently in order to become a professional artist
Initially Copnall started his painting studies under the tutelage of his father at the Sir John Cass School of Art in the City of London and from 1949 under the artist Sir Henry Rushbury at the Royal Academy School. His early work is largely figurative and he won the prestigious Turner Gold Medal for Landscape Painting in his final year in 1954.
In 1954 he and his friend Bert Flugelman visited Spain for what was intended to be a short visit. The effect was almost instant and he fell in love with the Iberian landscape staying for fourteen years. Whilst on Ibiza he married his first wife Madeleine Chardon with whom he had a daughter and when the marriage ended he moved to the mainland to live in a hacienda in the mountains above Malaga where he earned a living as a painter sometimes using the name of Juan de Retamá. The intense light of Spain and the visceral nature of its people changed his art fundamentally as he experimented with intense earthy colours whilst increasingly moving towards abstraction. Throughout his career Copnall was interested in using intense colour and the Spanish light undoubtedly enhanced his artistic senses.
...
Wikipedia