Winter Dreams
John Skelton MBE 1923-1999
He also undertook hundreds of smaller commissions, including bookplates, gravestones and unpretentious incised oak sign boards, seen on buildings and private houses. Drawings in pencil, pen and ink, conte and watercolour, which appeared in his many solo exhibitions, are yet another manifestation of his vigorous art.
John Skelton was a fellow of the Royal Society of Art and of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He was elected a brother of the Art Workers' Guild in 1963 and presided as a Master in 1985. In 1989 he received an MBE and continued to produce a flow of work in all media until his death in 1999.
To achieve success, says Walter Pater, the artist must 'burn with a hard, gem-like flame'.
Says Geoffrey Lintott: “John already burned with that flame when I first met him over 50 years ago and was privileged to sit each night in his first draughty workshop, watching him at work. Here was a unique character and a skilled artist-craftsman, single minded in his determination to forge a successful living out of the practice of his art.
“His hero was Benvenuto Cellini, archetypal Renaissance Man and polymath, whom he greatly resembled; for John was also a soldier, athlete, chorister, diarist, watercolourist, calligrapher, alphabet designer and cutter, sculptor and draughtsman, metal-worker, bon viveur and supreme raconteur with an unrivalled sense of joie-de-vivre.
“One marvels at the astonishing amount of time and energy he gave so generously to his friends and to his art – and with such panache. No one was ever bored in John's company. In the words of a memorial inscription he once carved and loved to quote he warmed both hands at the fire of life”.