John Butler Woodcarver

Besides showing my work in my own gallery I also exhibit at The Burton Art Gallery and Museum and The Royal West of England Academy.I started woodcarving in a rather roundabout way. My father had been a woodcarver before World War II and I used to play with his large collection of woodcarving tools that he stored in our shed. There were examples of his work around our house, which I considered to be extremely skillful and worthy, but rather old-fashioned.After an enjoyable art school education I worked at first as a stage designer and then on animated films such as Roobarb and Custard and Watership Down. It was at this time that my father became very ill and I took it upon myself to absorb as much of his woodcarving skills as I could. After he died I continued to carve, almost as a memorial to him. These early carvings were OK, but I was too much in his shadow. It was only when I started to draw on my own experiences as a stage designer and cartoonist that my woodcarvings started to come alive.