“I tend to seek out quiet, undeveloped spaces where I encounter lots of weeds and wildflowers. These common plants give me a subject to focus on in the bigger landscape and in paintings they divide or break through the horizon line. Weeds become monumental, running the whole vertical length of the compositions, uniting solid ground below with atmosphere above. They send out shoots, blossoms and seed pods that intermingle with the cloud forms around them.
Dark storm clouds moving in or out above the landscape creates drama in the paintings. It also hints at things like climate change, and the resilient plants often grow in disturbed land, sprouting up after a storm or a burn. They can be a symbol of hope, putting down roots and a visual display after some turmoil.”
John Knight, March 2024
John Knight received his M.F.A. in painting from American University, and a B.F.A. in painting from Indiana University. His work has been included in Biennial exhibitions at the Portland Museum of Art and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. Nationally, he has been awarded a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center (2003-04), and residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. In Maine he has been awarded residencies at Great Spruce Head Island, Acadia National Park, and Monhegan Island. He was the Maine Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellow for 2007.
“Artist John Knight finds beauty and strength in the humblest of plants” Suzette McAvoy, Maine Home and Design
“Using Luminous colors, Portland-based painter, John Knight depicts the ever-changing nature of the plants and wildflowers he views in his own backyard or on frequent nature walks at Maine Audobon’s Gilsland Farm in Farlmouth” – Kate Irish Collins, the Forecaster
“This is where Knight takes a great lesson from Van Gogh: No on has been better at using wet paint to combine lines uncolored rhythms that pulse with color and energy” – Dan Kany, Portland Press Herald