John was born in London in 1931. His early years were spent in the Kent countryside. His father Arthur Bedford Knapp-Fisher was Professor of Architecture at the Royal College of Art and he also founded the architectural practice of Knapp-Fisher, Powell and Russell. He was a lifelong draughtsman and watercolourist, and Johnʼs earliest memories are drawing and painting alongside his father. After schooling at St Andrews, Pangbourne and Eastbourne College, Sussex, he studied graphic design and typography at Maidstone College of Art. This was followed by National Service in the Army - the Royal Military Mounted Police.

 

 

John first worked as an exhibition designer in London for two years. It was here in 1958 that he began concentrating on painting and exhibiting. He then became the set designer for the Theatre Royal Margate and later the Castle Theatre Farnham. On leaving the theatre, he lived on a sea going boat, mainly in East Anglia, with his wife and painted full time. After five years, the family moved to Carmarthenshire in Wales. In 1967, John opened his studio gallery in Croesgoch on the St Davids peninsula, Pembrokeshire. He has exhibited widely in Britain and abroad - mainly South Africa - and his work is represented in many public and private collections. The former include The National Museum of Wales, The National Library of Wales - Aberystwyth, The Contemporary Art Society of Wales and Tenby Museum.

 

 

John has also been featured on television and radio and his work has been widely reviewed in newspapers and magazines for the Arts. In 1992 he was elected a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy. John works in ink and watercolour, oil and mixed media on paper and board. He wrote ʻJohn Knapp-Fisherʼs Pembrokeshireʼ in 1985 illustrated with his drawings and paintings. A second revised edition came out in 2003. Here one can read, see the sort of subjects that have interested him over the years and gain a deeper understanding of John the artist.