Born in Lowestoft, John Button grew up on the beaches of Pakefield, Southwold and Walberswick. After studying architecture in Brighton, he worked with exhibition design and illustration for many years before relocating to Sweden with his young family in 2002. Design work soon gave way to an overwhelming desire to express himself through paint. So the journey began. 

Button evolved a style of working in which colour and composition take centre stage, with less regard for perspective and other such formal rules. In his still life work, Button tries to tease something extraordinary from his everyday surroundings. His coastal works often refer to his beloved Suffolk, but after over twenty years in Sweden, influences from further afield can creep in. 

Button paints with acrylics, which he lays on with vigour. After creating an initial abstract composition of shapes and splashes, some semblance of reality normally finds its way in: a mug, a vase, a boat, a jetty… More often than not, he works on hard panels such as plywood or hardboard, which enable him to scratch and distress the surface. In addition to paint, he uses whatever may be to hand: charcoal, crayons, correcting fluid, oil pastel, wallpaper paste-working layer upon layer until something emerges, and tells him to stop. 

 

Represented:- 

Roddarhuset, Vaxholm, Sweden 

Ekströms Konst, Västerås, Sweden 

Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol, UK 

Padstow Gallery, Padstow, Cornwall 

Illustrated Living, St Ives, Cornwall 

Thomas Henry Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall 

Whitespace Art, Totnes, Devon 

Prince & Pilgrim Gallery, Richmond-upon-Thames 

Cricket Fine Art, London & Hungerford 

White Gallery Cotswolds, Gloucestershire  

Claremont Contemporary, Sevenoaks, Kent 

Dockside Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed 

Flint Gallery, Blakeney, Norfolk 

Chasen Galleries, Florida, USA 

Gallery Suiha, Tokyo, Japan