Contact Information: John Whalley P.O. Box 341 Damariscotta Maine 04543 (207) 563-2005 Website: John Whalley Studio e-mail: john@johnwhalley.com

Artist Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954, Whalley's mother, herself an artist and graduate of the Pratt Institute, encouraged him to draw and paint from an early age. He completed his first oil painting at eight years of age at his childhood home in upstate New York, amid the beauty of rural countryside with its woods, hills, and lakes.

After considering a career in architecture, Whalley pursued formal art training at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he majored in illustration and minored in drawing and painting. In 1976, he moved to Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where he regularly contributed artwork to a number of New England publications, including Atlantic Monthly and Yankee magazines. At this tim, he taught painting workshops at the Brockton Art Center.  In 1979, he moved to Lima, New York, and then to Harrison Valley, Pennsylvania, in 1981. In Harrison Valley, he helped develop a therapeutic art program for abused and abandoned children at an orphanage set on a private 300-acre farm. It was the remote and rustic setting of this farm and its surrounding hills that inspired many of Whalley's early works.

After the birth of his two sons, the Whalleys moved to Standish, Maine, near where Whalley spent many summers as a youth. Here he completed a series of paintings in oil and egg tempera and began working on an extended series of large-format graphite still lifes, which were represented for many years through Capricorn Galleries in Bethesda, Maryland. He also pursued a special interest by participating in several short-term outreaches to homeless children in El Salvador, Colombia, and the Amazon region and served as a volunteer worker and teacher from 1997 - 2003 at the New Horizons Youth Ranch in central Brazil.

Over the years, Whalley's work was exhibited widely in the museums of the Rhode Island School of Design, Purdue University, The University of Wisconsin at Eu Claire, University of Florida, and the University of Georgia at Athens. Exhibitions of his work have also included the Sheldon Swope Museum of Art, Dedland Museum of Art, The Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, the Tampa Museum of Art, and The Coral Springs Museum of Art.

He had a solo exhibition of his drawings and paintings at the Office of the Speaker of the House at the State Capitol in Augusta, Maine and was awarded a 2005 Good Idea Grant by the Maine Arts Commission.

Whalley currently lives and works in Damariscotta, Maine.  He is represented in New York City by Spanierman Gallery, LLC and in Portland, Maine by Greenhut Galleries. John was recently featured in the Lincoln County News, October 13th, 2005 edition: {Link}

John Whalley was featured in a filmed segment on a Boston news program recently.  As part of the series called "On the Road," Peter Mehegan of Channel 5 News Boston interviewed the artist in his Damariscotta studio, discussing both John's considerable art career and his recent history in Central and South America working with disadvantaged children in the arts and in their lives.  The television host became interested in Whalley's story after seeing an article written by Bob Keyes in the Maine Sunday Telegram (8/14/05) on Whalley's work and recent life story.  Part of that story involved John's exhibiting 8 of his paintings and drawings in a show called What Needs to be Retrieved: The Marriage of Tools, Art, and History, at the Davistown Museum in Liberty. {Greenhut Galleries ~ 2006}

Upcoming Exhibitions and Shows

 

The Portland Press Herald Maine Sunday Telegram paper ran a review of John Whalley's "World of Wonders" exhibit.

Upcoming Solo Exhibition of John's Drawings and Paintings
Vose Galleries of Boston 238 Newbury Street, Boston, MA November 15 - December 31, 2011 http://www.vosegalleries.com

The Art of Caring and Maine Premier of the 2011 Documentary Film "New Horizons, Brazil"
The Lincoln Theatre 2 Theatre Street, Damariscotta, Maine
Friday, December 2, 2011 - 7:00 P.M.
To Benefit the New Horizons Youth Ranch in Brazil This year's annual "Art of Caring" Benefit will feature the premier of filmmaker Chas Brun's documentary film of the trip he took with John & Ellen Whalley to visit the children of the New Horizons Youth Ranch in central Brazil in April of this year. New Horizons is a place where miracles happen for some of Brazil's "children of the street", and Chas has sensistively documented the week that he said "was one of the most transforming weeks of my life." This event will also feature John's artwork and book, 100% of the sale of which will benefit the children of New Horizons. Admission will be free-will offering. Be sure to set this evening aside to start off the "season of giving" by joining us to make a meaningful difference in the lives of these extraordinary kids!

Something new this year is John's new YOUTUBE CHANNEL, "John Whalley Studio", which you are invited to visit at the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnWhalleyStudio

The first videos featured on his channel are:
"ARTBEATS" - A documentary on John's artwork and studio by Indian filmmaker Ashish Dawar.
"MARATHON" - a documentary on the life and work of Maine craftsman and historian Huston Dodge, which features interviews by John - a friend of Huston, who has been a frequent subject of John's drawings and paintings.
"SHELLS & THINGS" - a film in two parts which John helped produce in the late 1980's while working as a volunteer among Ft. Lauderdale's "street kids" and featuring the puppet 'Bernard' who John designed and pupeteered in the film. With the help and advice of many of the runaways on Ft. Lauderdale's "Strip", this film was made to take the viewer into the harsh reality of life on the streets, seen through the eyes of an endearing runaway puppet. John will be posting new videos on his Youtube Channel in the months to come, so make it a favorite and stay tuned!

You can also see some new work posted on the 'graphites' and 'oils' pages of his site, as well as a newly posted short film on Huston Dodge (Marathon) and John, featured with a second on John's work and studio (Artbeats) on the 'documentaries' page of John's site: http://www.johnwhalley.com/Documentaries.html . Huston is a friend of John's and frequent subject of his work. The film is beautifully done.

John Whalley Studio is now on Facebook!

For those of you who would like to view John’s new professional page on Facebook, just go to “John Whalley Studio” and sign up to receive his weekly update.

John H. Surovek Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida
See: http://www.surovekgallery.com/whalleyJ.html

Vose Gallery of Boston
See: http://www.vosegalleries.com/currex/Thumbnails.cfm?Currex_ID=130&EID=1

Greenhut Galleries, Portland, Maine
See: http://www.greenhutgalleries.com/artists/artist.html?name_last=Whalley

PRINTS:
Limited Edition Signed Archival Prints of a selection of John’s drawings and paintings are available for sale at his web site.
See: http://johnwhalley.com/Prints.html

BOOK: “In New Light”: A  full color,167-page hardcover 30-year retrospective monograph of John’s work is available for order at: http://johnwhalley.com/Publications.html  

SUMMER STUDIO VISITS:
John’s studio in Damariscotta Mills (Town of Nobleboro, Maine) is open for visits this summer by appointment.

Work in the Museum's Permanent Collection

Rotation 2005 mixed media 22" x 15 1/8"

Tool Mark 2004 graphite on paper 18" x 25 1/4"

Constellation 2005 graphite on paper 22 1/4" x 13 1/2"

Vulcanized graphite on paper 25 1/4" x 16 1/2"  2005

Offering graphite on paper 27" x 13 1/2" 2005

Work for sale in the MAG Gallery

Trio 2005 Archival inkjet print $450.00	Tool Belt 2005 Archival inkjet print John Whalley $450.00

Archival inkjet prints (13" x 19") of John Whalley's paintings and drawings are also avialable for $250.00 (unframed) and $350.00 (framed)
Each edition is limited to 200, and each print is signed and numbered by the artist.