Curator's Picks | Modern Master John Myatt

John is, without doubt, one of the most interesting and knowledgeable individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with, not to mention working alongside. I joined John on a recent trip to Venice, where he sought to follow in the footprints of revered Impressionist Claude Monet, having undertaken detailed research at about the artist’s stay in the city with his wife, away from their home in Giverny.

 We spoke at length about Monet’s well-documented time in Venice – which the artist documented by painting a new canvas every day – and John’s pleasure in knowing that the city is largely unchanged since the early 1900s, which meant that he was able to reconjure and paint the same landscape that would have presented itself to Monet.

Working with some of the world’s most famous masterpieces as his templates, John speaks of moving beyond a passive appreciation of these works, to create new paintings in the style of his favoured artists. He was particularly intrigued by Monet’s deployment of light in his Venice pieces, knowingly that the artist found the autumn sunrises and sunsets challenging, by virtue of the way the hues of colour played across the surface of the water in the canals, with reflections from Gothic windows playing their own tricks at certain times of the day. Ever the perfectionist and keen to challenge himself, John rose to the challenge and his latest collection of five limited editions are a triumphant recreation of Monet’s ethereal aesthetic.

In terms of his wider artistic career with Washington Green and Castle Fine Art to date, John’s gift for reimagining master works has positioned him as an enduring favourite, with collections sought after as soon as a whisper about their release reaches the public domain. John’s painterly ability is second to none, deftly drawing upon the techniques of his forebears, but in my opinion it’s his commitment to researching his subjects, learning their histories and understanding their psychology that gives rise to his stellar portfolio of work.