Jon Everitt is an English painter now living and working in the south of France whose painting recently appeared on the album cover for Richard Durrant's album, Rewilding. His art is playful; it is almost as if the observer is arriving in the middle of a story, maybe a little bizarre like a dream, and it is up to the observer to interpret what is happening.
Born in Windsor in 1958, Jon was rarely to be found without a pencil in his hand as a child. He studied illustration at Reigate School of Art from 1977-81. His ambition was to illustrate children’s books and record covers but instead he found himself learning to draw cartoons the old-fashioned way at a greetings card manufacturer. This was followed by a spell working for a cartographic firm, where Jon began to develop his love-hate relationship with the precision his day job demanded and, perhaps as a result, he did not paint at all in the 1980s.
In the 1990s he returned to watercolours, mainly detailed samplers for exhibitions or small cartoon-inspired pictures as gifts for friends but it was in 2006 that he took up painting again, working this time in acrylics because they give him the strong colours that he loves.
Since 2006 he has exhibited successfully in many places in the south of England Northern and Southern France and his works have also made their way to USA, Greece and Italy.
"As founder and only member of the International Unrealists Group, I have made it my artistic mission to bring the unreal to everyday life with a collection of paintings inspired by reasonably unlikely events and unreasonably likely happenings."
Jon loves puns and wordplay and this can be seen both in the subject matter of his painting and their titles. He does not work towards a true representation but aims to paint freely, deriving inspiration from his love of music and also the sea and things maritime.