John was born November 6, 1949. He grew up on Pick Handle Hill in Everettville, West Virginia. As a boy he spent many evenings drawing on the backs of junk mail letters. He liked the quality of the paper and it had no lines. He was first introduced to oils, watercolors, pastels and charcoal at the age of 12 when his mother bought him a $200.00 art correspondence course from the Washington School of Art. The fundamentals of his watercolor background came as a young man from a $3.00, 39 page pocket copy of Henry Gasser's Guide to Watercolor...more