John Alexander Parks is an English painter who was educated at the Royal College of Art in London. He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy while still a graduate student and achieved immediate success as a portrait painter, undertaking the famous Pear's Portrait Commission as well as many private commissions. Parks moved to New York in the late seventies and has exhibited widely in the United States and Britain over the last thirty years. His painting has focussed largely on English themes in which he has explored the nature of personal and national identity through a long series of highly original images of English life.

Parks is a member of the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York where he teaches courses on portraiture, realist techniques and gouache techniques.

In addition to his work as a painter Parks has published many articles on art and travel in publications ranging from the New York Times to American Artist Magazine to catalogue essays for the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Parks' painting is represented by 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel in New York. He makes his home in Dutchess County, New York.

This website provides an archive of the artist's work since 1977 from the early cityscapes, through his lyrical and romantic garden paintings, his riotous "havoc" paintings up to his latest pictures. Recently Parks has been working with finger-painting, a technique that has given an entirely new look to the soldier and train motifs of the last ten years. He has also recently completed several large map paintings of London. His latest work, painted entirely from memory, revisits his childhood in Northern England.

Recent Exhibition

Paint and Memory: New Paintings by John A. Parks

532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel

532 West 25th St. New York

November 8th, 2012- February 16th, 2013

New York Times review by Roberta Smith

Images and information on the show

Gallery website: http://532gallery.com/

Parks has recently published a book on his work entitled Paint and Longing, which is now available as a free ebook. With more than a hundred and thirty full color pages and an introductory essay by the artist's brother, the novelist and essayist Tim Parks, this book provides a wealth of insights into the life and work of the artist.

Video featuring the artist discussing his recent painting.

For information on studying with John Parks at the School of Visual Arts - Please click here.