John Springer

Society of Irregulars Founder

Teacher, Painter, Guide

Hometown: Columbus, GA/Charlotte, NC

Currently in Aix-en-Provence, France

Second Home: Jackson Hole, Wyoming

“I see the world I paint as an infinite collection of on-going stories. I can look anywhere, upturn any rock and find immaculate complexities of interrelationships between living and non-living elements that represent the present page of an age-old book. In my search for answers to all the wonders of nature I know that I will never understand everything, but I can trust that there is a binding energy that ties it all together. What I paint are flashes of the ephemeral evidences of the unifying unknown.”

Background

John studied at the University of the South: Sewanee where he received a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources in 2012. In 2021, he came to France to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree with the American Colleges of the Mediterranean. He obtained his MFA in 2023.
“I really began painting in high school taking four years of art classes with the same teacher and group of students. I did not think I realized at that time how formative of an experience that would be for my future. The real guiding principle from Mrs. Wu was just be yourself and give it your all. In college I studied mostly geology, forestry and biology, but I also got the chance to take a course in modern art history and encaustic painting. After college in Wyoming I painted in my spare time and began to develop a practice of painting western landscapes. By 2014 I began taking art pretty seriously and from then on made it a full time endeavor.”
“Anything that moves, and everything moves at least a little.”
Oil Paint, Charcoal, Watercolor and Soft Pastel
John accepts commissions. He likes to create his works from being present before a motif. He builds several larger compositions off of initial sketches until he finds something that works.