​​

The work of John Forrester Clack is a combination of oil painting and charcoal drawing where the medium itself takes a leading role rather than acting simply as an expressive tool. In his paintings thick, voluptuous paint is energetically manipulated to create imagery that emerges from the surface. These works blur the boundary between painting and sculpture and his poignant portraits appear free from a literal interpretation of human features. The work appears charged with an overwhelming and dynamic sense of spirit and emotion.

Sasha Grishin wrote of John’s work: “Forrester Clack’s work has a freshness, uniqueness and immediacy…True visionary art has to be a response to a personal quest and it is this quality above anything else which shines brightest in the art of John Forrester Clack."

For me, drawing and the processes involved when I paint and draw, is a place I go to, a state of being; I go only with hope and belief. I try to put aside my human vanities and stand open and vulnerable but most of all honest - about the experience of being alive.

He has been practicing and exhibiting as a full time artist since completing his Master of Arts at the Royal College of Art, London in 1986.