| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | John Compton studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts (now the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 1969-1970) and received a diploma in Painting & Drawing from the Alberta College of Art (now the Alberta College of Art and Design, 1975). His meditative drawings and paintings, which each take over a hundred hours to produce, use soft tones, allegorical or fantasy shapes and textures, vast spatial fields, rhythm, and compositional cadence to present figures, part icon and part ominous presence, that often confront audiences with a hypnotic stare to involve viewers in the compositions.
Compton has taught art in Nanton, Crossfield, and Cochrane, AB as part of the SAIT Continuing Education Program. He has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Alberta, as well as at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and at Valdosta State College (Georgia, USA). His work has received two cultural assistance grants from the Alberta Government, and is held in the collections of the Alberta College of Art and Design and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts; corporate collections including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Chevron Standard, Gulf Canada, Esso Resources, and Shell Canada; and private collections in Canada, the United States, Bahamas, West Germany, and England.
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