About John Sturgess

John’s interests range from the details of aircraft, cars, ships and trains to the scale of a tsunami or a galaxy. Hand-painted notes sometimes sit alongside an image, recording dates, routes and facts. Elsewhere, eyes look out from skies and space, or mushroom houses inhabit colourful landscapes.

Humour runs through Gizmo’s adventures. Other paintings have a quieter sense of whimsy and wonder. John paints from his travels, everyday interests and imagination, as well as from the mystical experiences he describes.

An idea might arrive while he is watching television or talking in a café; he goes home to paint it. His home is also his studio, with paintings covering the walls. Visit the studio ↗

Friendship is part of John’s painting life. He makes pictures for people he cares about, and their cats often find their way into the work.

His own lifelong companion, Gizmo, is a frequent star too. Part bear, part cat and very much his own character, he has a place in John’s life as well as in his paintings. Meet Gizmo ↗

Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1956, John came to New Zealand as a small child. Travel has remained a lasting interest and a subject for his paintings.

1959 · The journey to New Zealand

His family sailed from the United Kingdom through the Panama Canal, stopping in Tahiti. They arrived in Wellington on 29 April, a few weeks before John’s third birthday.

Auckland and journeys abroad

After leaving school, John worked in refrigeration in Auckland. Over the years, his travels have taken him through Europe, the United States, Australia and South America. Paris and Rome are his favourite cities.

2011 · Auckland to Wellington

After a holiday in the United Kingdom, John moved from Auckland to Wellington. He lived in Newtown until 2019 and now makes his home and paintings in Taita, Lower Hutt.

In Newtown, John became a regular at People's Coffee, where he met his friend Kane. Kane later presented John's paintings at drive-thru, where John exhibited in 2022 and 2024. Three of John's works were included in the 2024 group exhibition The Mongoose and the Snake at Jhana Millers Gallery, curated by Elisabeth Pointon.

John says he had no interest in making art before his first heart attack and heart surgery in March 2012. Cricket, rugby and making model planes had been his main pursuits.

During the period from 2012 to early 2013, he began to paint. He describes a radical change in his interests: sport and model making became less central as painting took hold. Some interest in cricket and rugby remained, but his days had acquired a different focus.

The impulse to paint surprised him; he does not know where it came from. His near-death experience followed more than a decade later.

John describes a near-death experience during a cardiac emergency in August 2024. He recalls a dark tunnel, a white light and an invisible line, beyond which he understood there would be no return.

He describes a presence that could see him while remaining unseen, communicating telepathically amid multicoloured light. There was music of a beauty he finds impossible to put into words, and distant voices that felt familiar, though he could not make out what they were saying.

John remembers a message to return to his friends and family. Whether returning felt like a choice is unclear in his accounts. When he came to, his friends Kane, Deb and Piers were there.

This experience has a particular place in his work. The recurring eyes give form to the unseen face he describes. His large plaster diorama models the tunnel at the invisible line, placing the viewer at that threshold. A separate painted explanatory board sets out the two directions: back to friends and family, or onwards into the tunnel.

John also recounts an out-of-body experience in the 1970s. He describes seeing his sleeping body below him, rising through the roof and travelling backwards through scenes from history before returning abruptly to his body. He recalls this as a separate experience from the 2024 NDE.

In 1977, he describes an apparition in his room and, on the following night, an unseen presence communicating that it would return one day. These earlier experiences form another part of the inner life he speaks about alongside his painting.