John Caple (b.1966)

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About

John Caple

Somerset - b.1966

John Caple was born in 1966. He is entirely self-taught and as untroubled by contemporary art as he is unbothered by academic training and his work requires neither. In the twentieth century the folk tradition was often confused with naïve art, yet an important distinction exists between the two and that distinction in many ways helps to understand John’s work. Whereas a naïve artist paints entirely from within a private, enclosed world, an artist like John Caple is expressing stories and sentiments that have a shared ownership. In the twenty-first century he is an oddity amongst painters – though that is an observation that will trouble him little.

John Caple has exhibited with the John Martin Gallery in London for the last 18 years and held two solo exhibitions with the Everard Read Gallery in South Africa. In 2011 he completed a cycle of three triptychs based on A Midsummer’s Night Dream for the Glyndebourne Festival. His works is held in collections throughout the world.

John Caple says Mendip is a hard county. His family have farmed and quarried in this corner of Somerset since the eighteenth century and certainly the quarrymans life was, and remains, a tough one. Old pagan traditions survived despite the concerned attentions of nineteenth century missionaries and even the strict sect of Plymouth Brethren, who maintained a strong foothold in the Mendips. The tight community in which John grew up has a rich history of remarkable people whose stories were pased down through successive generations. They and their history continue to be as much a part of the countryside as his own.

His knowledge derives mainly from family tradition and his Great Uncle Orion Owen Caple, who wrote a brief set of memoirs in old age. Orion Owen also learnt some of the wider history and folk-lore of the Mendips through his encounters with the antiquarian, Francis Knight, whose books The Heart of Mendip and A Corner of Arcady were published at the beginning of the last century. Orion Owen recalled meeting Knight: “I used to deliver milk to Wintrath, the home of Francis Knight, and on a few occasions he would open his little glass house door, which was set back in the rockery for to do most of his writing in quiet and peace, and he would invite me inside to have a little chat; as he would put it, to have a few moments relief from writing. He was an interesting old man”.

Yet Orion Owen and John Caple both have a direct role in Mendip history in a way that an antiquarian like Francis Knight never could. John Caple is the most recent link in a chain that stretches back centuries. His art represents the collective memory of generations of Mendip land-workers; as such his paintings present a rare and important survival of folk art. It is a living art and the more one becomes familiar with it, the more one finds the reality of this community emerging out of the shadows of his extraordinary and powerful imagination.

John Caple’s paintings, all done in mixed media, feature re-occurring faces of his mother, grandparents, uncles and others in scenes derived from his imagination through stories he is told of their pasts. Each painting describes specific episodes in the lives of these characters.

Archive

The Tower 2017 acrylic on canvas 32 x 44 ins, (81 x 111 cm)

The Poets House 2017 acrylic on canvas 22 x 22 ins, (56 x 56 cm)

Shady Woods and White Cottages 2017 acrylic on canvas 28 x 31 ins, (71 x 81 cm)

The Hermitage 2015 acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 ins, 76 x 76 cms

Wild Horse, Full Moon 2015 acrylic on canvas 30 x 48 ins, 76 x 122 cms

Fox 2015 acrylic on paper 6 x 4 ins, 15 x 10 cms

Dusk 2015 acrylic on paper 6 x 9 ins, 15 x 23 cms

Culbone Church 2016 watercolour 11¼ x 17½ ins, 28 x 45 cms

A Broom Squire 2015 Acrylic on linen on board 7¾ x 7¾ ins, 20 x 20 cm

Wood Supper Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 ins, 76 x 76 cms

Roosting in the Trees Acrylic on canvas 44 x 32 ins, 112 x 82 cms

The Broomsquire’s Cottage Acrylic on canvas 22 x 27¼ ins, 60 x 70 cms

The Berry Pickers acrylic on canvas 44 x 32 ins, 111 x 81 cms

Wild Horseman 2015 Acrylic on canvas 32 x 44 ins, (81.28 x 111.76 cms)

Crow Wood 2015 Acrylic on canvas 32 x 44 ins, (81.28 x 111.76 cms)

A Dusk Wish 2015 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 ins, (76.20 x 76.20 cms)

Wassail Mixed media on board 21 x 21¼ ins, (53.34 x 53.98 cms)

Night Journey 2014 Acrylic on linen 11¾ x 15¾ ins, (29.85 x 40.01 cms)

Wood Supper Acrylic on canvas 26 x 26 ins, (66.04 x 66.04 cms)

A Silent Supper Mixed media on board 21 x 21 ins, (53.34 x 53.34 cms)

The Blackbird Acrylic on gesso panel 12 x 12 ins, (30.48 x 30.48 cms)

Christabel in the Oak Wood Acrylic on board 22 x 27½ ins, (55.88 x 69.85 cms)

In the Midnight Wood Acrylic on gesso panel 11¾ x 15¾ ins, (29.85 x 40.01 cms)

The Woodland Chapel Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

The Broom Squire’s Journey Acrylic on canvas 48 x 60 ins, (121.92 x 152.40 cms)

Collecting Hawthorn, May Eve Mixed media on board 32 x 44 ins, (81.28 x 111.76 cms)

Morning (left) 2012 Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

The Wedding Chapel (centre) 2012 Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

Demetrius Enchanted (right) 2012 Mixed media on board 43.3 x 31.09 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

Hermia and Lysander (left) 2012 Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

At the Crossroads (right) 2012 Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

Lysander Enchanted (centre) 2012 Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.86 x 78.97 cms)

The Charming Witch of Withycombe, Somerset Mixed media on board 16½ x 16½ ins, (41.91 x 41.91 cms)

Eden in the Ancient Woods Mixed media on board 19¾ x 40¼ ins, (50.17 x 102.24 cms)

Night Song Mixed media on board 22 x 24¼ ins, (55.88 x 61.60 cms)

Journey to the Midnight Wood 2014 Mixed media on canvas 47 x 59 ins, (119.38 x 149.86 cms)

Journey to the Woods Mixed media on board 22½ x 41 ins, (57.15 x 104.14 cms)

To Find a Wild Pony Mixed media on board 34½ x 36 ins, (87.63 x 91.44 cms)

Nightingale Woods Mixed media on board 44 x 32 ins, (111.76 x 81.28 cms)

The Nightingale Man Mixed media on board 44 x 32 ins, (111.76 x 81.28 cms)

Wishing in the Woods Mixed media on board 44 x 32 ins, (111.76 x 81.28 cms)

Woodland Chapel Acrylic on gesso panel 12 x 12 ins, (30.48 x 30.48 cms)

Hermia in the Woods Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

Egeus at the Wedding Table Mixed media on board 43¼ x 31 ins, (109.98 x 78.97 cms)

Biography

Solo Exhibitions

2016 This Common Wild
2014 In the Midnight Wood
2012 Paintings from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Glyndebourne Festival, Glyndebourne
2011 The Light, The Dusk, The Dark, John Martin Gallery, London
2010 The Thorn Tree Cycle, John Martin Gallery, London
2009 The Nightgale’s Song, John Martin Gallery, London
2008 To the Quiet Moon, Everard Read, Johannesburg
2007 Sea and Hill and Wood
2006 The Silent Supper, Everard Read, Johannesburg
2005 The Greenwood Tree, John Martin Gallery, London
The Heart of Mendip,
2003 The Ashen Tree, John Martin Gallery, London
2000 John Caple, John Martin Gallery, London

Group Exhibitions

2007 London Art Fair, John Martin Gallery
2006 London Art Fair, John Martin Gallery
2006 Into the Jungle – A Homage to Rousseau, John Martin Gallery
2004 The Stuff of Magic, John Martin Gallery

Publications

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  This Common Wild
  2016

• 

  In the Midnight Wood
  2014

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  The Light, The Dusk, The Dark
  2011

Films

Photos