John Eaton
John Eaton was born in Ottawa in 1942 and attended High Mowing School in New England, with special emphasis on painting and drawing. For three years following this he travelled in Europe, working in Yugoslavia and Greece and as an apprentice to a marble sculptor in Florence, Italy.
From 1961 to 1967 he had a studio in New York and taught drawing at the Waldorf School of Adelphi University. During this period, his pictures were used for multi-media poetry and dance recitals at the Lincoln Centre, the Donnell Library and the Cubiculo Off-Broadway Theatre, New York. In 1965 he illustrated "Fairy Tales" by E.E. Cummings published by Harcourt, Brace and World. In 1967 he assisted with the murals in the Pan-Am Building in New York and in 1971, he completed a series of murals for the dance studio of High Mowing School.
The artist currently works from his studio in Rupert, Quebec, north of Ottawa, Ontario, where he has lived for the past 30 years.
Movement, volume and rhythm are all qualities particular to John Eaton's work. His paintings exude a kind of sober aestheticism where colours are discreet, yet they are rendered sensual and voluptuous through their luminosity and palpable quality.
The artist's velocity of gesture and quality of observation contribute to building a coherent, solid pictorial space where forms and colours come alive in a swirling impression of poetry and dream. John Eaton's paintings are inspired by the natural forces which surround us: water, air, fire and earth. They are all used to express the artist’s thoughts about both the unity and uniqueness of these elements and they ways they relate to animals and humans.