John Lyons, A Jolly Giant With Eyes & Brain For Hire!

 
 
He spent 10 years living and working in Oxford. Where, aside from his medical career, he offered his services as a counsellor to the local victim support service, specializing in male victims of violent assault. Through providing a service to the male partners of female rape victims, John was chosen by a female victim to counsel her, much to his surprise! In John’s earlier years, he had amassed a considerable experience of street violence and it’s impact on the victim, this experience and his natural ability to put a nervous person at their ease made him into a very useful asset in this difficult aspect of counseling. Oxford was where he first started attending a life drawing class and discovered that having a natural ability, his first charcoal sketch was accepted for exhibition in a public art gallery as part of the “Oxfordshire Art Weeks” Festival. He later went on to run the class as the teacher and eventually moved into photography. A chance encounter resulted in his being taught the skills of classical photography and master hand-printing by an American war-photographer and an English photographer to the Royal Family! Thus, his photographic education was of the highest possible calibre, without ever completing a photography course at a college or university. Not surprisingly, with a background and an artistic passion for the nude female form, he used the camera as an artist would use a palette of paint. Whilst many people get “into” photography from enjoying pressing buttons on a camera & worry how to compose a picture or how to communicate with people. John came to photography with these skills already finely tuned, the camera was merely an instrument by which he created his art. Although photography is his main passion, his business still involves all aspects of creating art of the human form, whether this be by paint, charcoal, concrete, body-painting and body casting...some samples of which will be shown here. When he developed the technique of painting with quick setting concrete a reporter from the Manchester “Metro” Magazine came and posed semi-draped for him, the resulting large canvas was publicly exhibited and John had a double page feature in the magazine. However his true speciality, that which sets him aside from most of the photographers in the country, is his unique ability to make ladies feel safe and totally secure in his presence. Without this natural ability and his life-experiences he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to create such stunning photographs and to have been able to make so many women feel so good about themselves. This is his real skill, the photograph is merely the vehicle for his calm and gentle personality by which he reassures, gives confidence and guides ladies to think beyond their current boundaries with prudent anticipation rather than anxious fear. John left Oxford and came to settle in Cheshire 6 years ago when his parents became seriously ill. They have since passed away and now John has renewed his vigor to be involved with people. He set up his own Photography & Fine Art business trading as “Cameraclix” almost 5 years ago and operates from a large studio in Vernon Mill, Stockport. GirlzART, his specialised nude work is marketed under a different brand name to protect his Cameraclix business, who mainly comprise family portrait and wedding clients. Although this site links to Cameraclix, Cameraclix doesn’t link back to GirlzART. Sadly, not all family photography clients, in this culture of fear & suspicion, understand that the nude work is nationally recognised as Fine Art. These styles of photography are only separated on the websites, in the studio there is no such separation and all is clearly available to view. John has never lost a family client after they’ve met him in person but he is aware of losing potential clients from website portfolio’s as they sent email to complain about the presence of nude photos on the site. Publications: many of the UK national papers, national magazines and some regional publications 2003-2008 Television: John played host to Channel 5’s “How Not To Decorate” programme, as he was required to teach the camp interior designer presenters “Colin & Justin” how to draw and paint the nude. The presenters were expected to have had previous artistic experience but their experience only came from a journalistic background and they had never picked up a piece of charcoal or palette of paints in their life, before coming for filming with John! 2006 Radio: Producer, Writer & Presenter for “Thought For The Day” on BBC radio 1986 Exhibitions: Oxfordshire Art Weeks, Breaking Spaces (Cheshire)2003,2004, Felliccinis (Monton) 2005, Open Spaces at Vernon Mill 2006,2007,2008, Stockport Metropolitan Art Gallery 2005, The Vernon Gallery, Stockport 2007, Bistro West (Manchester) 2006, Art2show Starbucks/Borders Bookshop (Stockport) 2008, Cafe Uno 2007 On-line Galleries: London’s Saatchi Gallery, Purestorm (both ongoing)http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/a/5220.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0