Artist's Details
JOHN BOWMAN NSA 1872 - 1915
John Bowman began studying at the Nottingham School of Art at the age of
fourteen when he was also working as a warehouse clerk. He continued to attend part time for twelve years and would doubtless have had contact with art master Thomas Barrett and fellow students, Laura Johnson and Harold Knight.
Bowman’s style is not unlike that of Fred Jackson, made up of a series of strong brush strokes, each one of a carefully mixed colour and tone, which combine to give a sense of light, depth and often of movement. His skies are often composed of cloud lit in the strong manner favoured by Friedenson. His work, which does not often appear on the market, has the sense of immediacy indicative of a true plein air artist.
He had a studio in Nottingham until 1903 when he moved to Sandsend, living there for about eight years. He then moved to Elstree in Hertfordshire. He became a founder member of the Staithes Art Club in 1901. He was elected a member of the Nottingham Society of Artists in 1908. He exhibited at Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery and also at Leeds City Art Gallery, the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Yorkshire Union of Artists and the Staithes Art Club. He has work in the collections of the Williamson Gallery, Birkenhead and the Pannett Museum and Gallery, Whitby.
Bibliography:
Staithes Group Centenary Exhibition, Rosamund Jordan 2003
The Staithes Group, Peter Phillips, Phillips and Sons, Marlow1993
The Yorkshire Union of Artists 1888 – 1922, Dennis Child, Leeds Philosophical and
Literary Society Ltd, Leeds 2001
The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 – 1940, J. Johnson & A. Greutzner, Antique
Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge 1976
© Rosamund Jordan 2003
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