We caught up with John Cloake, who is based in Heath and Reach, recently to ask him about his work.
How did you start your art journey?
I’ve been making art since I could hold a pencil. My parents encouraged me and my father taught me some basic techniques. In Bulgaria I was influenced by a wonderful cartoonist/printer Todor Tsonev. As a young infantry officer I painted watercolours of military life in Germany and Northern Ireland. Later in the Civil Service I drew cartoons celebrating the successes and disasters of colleagues.
A turning point came after leaving the Foreign Office when I was studying for an MA in Art Photography. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which was inoperable at that stage. I went through several months of intense chemotherapy and decided to make cartoons of my illness, seeking humour in a grim, scary situation.
It was partly psychological warfare and partly a potential valedictory for my family. Amazingly, the chemotherapy made surgery possible and I found I was still alive and had collected a book’s worth of material that others found encouraging. Since then I feel that, like Matisse, I have been given “a second life” and have pursued art full time as health permits.
What media do you work in?
I have evolved through watercolour and pen and ink towards linocut and wood engraving. I have even tried some Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock). I love the engagement with the materials. They offer completely different emotional experiences. Linocut is great for rougher, wilder marks – very suitable for my political pieces. Wood engraving is highly controlled and often intricately detailed – very beautiful.
Which subjects interest you?
Political subjects such as the Climate Crisis or Ukraine, because I believe that art can help change narratives. People – clothed or unclothed, serious or light-hearted, because whether they are causing me joy or anger, the antics of humans are always interesting. I am also exploring the idea of “art as slow-journalism”.
Can you tell us about your work process?
Ideas often ferment for a while in my head. Eventually, I make a few thumbnail sketches. If it is a print, I think through the mechanics because each cut is like letting in a piece of light and only the uncut material will print black. It requires more planning than say an ink sketch. The hardest part for me is often crossing the start line. Once I get going I work quite quickly. I am quite good at making myself go the extra mile if necessary e.g. to make changes and re-print even if tired but draw the line at redoing a piece of work completely. I can’t cope with that. Thinking can take weeks but once started most images are completed in one or two days. Linocuts and engravings take longer and a print usually takes another day to print off.
What’s your proudest achievement in art?
Hearing from a relative that my book “Cartooning through Cancer” made a terminally ill cancer patient laugh for the first time in ages.
Which artists do you admire?
There are so many but… Hokusai and Hasui for Japanese work. For watercolour Thomas Rowlandson. For cartooning, H.E. Bateman and Osbert Lancaster. For printmaking, the Mexicans of the Taller de Grafica Popular. For engravings: Eric Gill, John Buckland-Wright, Gwen Raverat and Robert Gibbings and contemporary engravers Hilary Paynter and Anne Desmet.
If the National Gallery was on fire and you could save just one painting there, which one would it be?
“Bathers at La Grenouillere” by Claude Monet because I learned to swim in a river and when I see this image I can smell the water and feel the sunlight.
What are you working on at the moment?
Several wood engravings on different themes and one linocut on the Climate Crisis that I have temporarily abandoned, … but will be finished in due course. I’m thinking about how to show my Climate Crisis series more widely.
What’s your current learning goal?
Improving my wood engraving skills. I have started a mentoring relationship with a very skillful wood engraver – very exciting.
What’s your favourite paint colour?
Cerulean blue
Do you have any advice or tips?
Be grateful for each day – and keep your fingers behind your cutting tools!
You can see more of John’s work at www.johncloake.com and follow him on Instagram@johnclo95
