About

Hi, I’m Neil, the website author, I’d like to offer my observations of John, trying to get him to sit long enough to do this himself is just never going to happen.

John is a “Get-It-Done” sort of guy who grew up on the land and has spent most of his life in the Gippsland area. John’s parents were strong on values, instilling the value of integrity and performance over talk.

Being close to the land and animals, John developed a real sense of nature and balance, forming relationships with people of diverse backgrounds. With such diversity combined with natural empathy and learning to “feel his way” was prerequisite to developing the skills to sculpt in the manner that only John does. Being from a farming background, using tractors, bulldozers chainsaws and other machinery became second nature by the time he could walk. He cared for his equipment because it looked after him.

Unlike most sculptors and artists, John doesn’t sectionalise, proportion, pre-sketch his work. I’ve watched John strive to put the personality of his subject into the sculpture as he carves it. John just feels a natural affinity with the subjects he’s carving whether they’re people animals or inanimate objects. John likes to look at his subjects and develop his impression of them, he then just approaches a log and starts molding it with one of the most aggressive tools known to man!

John’s ability to caress and finesse a raw, untreated log into a piece of fine art with no real training is nothing short of astounding. Most sculptors spend years learning their theory, gradually progressing theory into practice.

Like most bush kids, John learned to whittle and shape timber with his ever trusty pocket knife, then one day, while using the chainsaw had an epiphany and decided carving larger sculptures would make sense with bigger tools, ala, the chainsaw came into play. John’s impatience kicked in very quickly as he worked out how much he could shape in a short time. John just said to himself “I think I can do that” then, just did! Some years later, John saw an American documentary on a USA based Chainsaw sculptor and realised he wasn’t alone! He then reached out to others of similar interest and jointly, they now form a bonded network.

Building technique and expertise with equipment has allowed John to become a very accomplished carver. John’s list of achievements is breathtaking having claimed many National & International competition titles as far back as the mid 90’s.

John really enjoys doing commissioned sculptures. He understands how much a patron values the subject if they ask him to carve it. That’s John’s true motivation.

These are just a selection of John’s favourite projects