John White

A sailor on terra firma

In a life less ordinary there have been two constant themes, painting and the sea.

John White went to sea when he was sixteen, and for twenty two years sailed on every type of  merchant vessel, from Union Castle Liners and Cunarders to small coasting tankers, in every capacity from galley boy to bosun to master in Papua New Guinea.

Twice shipwrecked, once aged seventeen when his ship broke in half in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; again in the South Pacific, he nevertheless always returned to the sea. 

The one long interruption was for four years with the R.A.F. in Malaya, serving on the Sunderland Flying Boats  of 205/209 Sqdrn. F.E.A.F. (Far East Air Force).

The local sailing craft in the many remote ports he visited made a great impression on him.

Dhows and Bagallas with their high carved sterns up in the Gulf of Cutch ; the fleets of ochre sailed Junks ghosting into Aberdeen Harbour on Hong Kong Island ;  Proas and Baguis crowding the ports of Indonesia ; and the Pearling Luggers at sunset coming into Thursday Island.  All were recorded and remembered. 

Always painting in watercolour, his preferred medium, he captured the character and luminosity of his subjects.

Later he would paint the huge commercial sailing ships that ran round Cape Horn in the nitrate trade and the grain ships racing from Australia.

In 1976 whilst sailing his own boat he met and married Diana on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Leaving the sea after so many years was never going to be easy, but he gradually established himself as a full-time marine artist, exhibiting at the Royal Marine Society and biannually at the Barbican with Seatrade .

The sea though was never far away and in 1989 they went to live on Green Island on the English South coast for five years.

Two more important one-man shows followed in 1998 and 2002 at the International Maritime Organisation on London’s South Bank.

Having lived in Pézenas in the Languedoc, France for the past six years, he also paints the Bateaux Catalane, local Mediterranean craft  and the architecture of Languedoc.