Painter, especially in acrylic, collagist, teacher and poet, born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), who moved to Scotland in 1939. She was married to the sculptor David John. Studied at Liverpool School of Art, for sculpture with Karel Vogel, 1945–50; St Martin’s School of Art, with Frederick Gore for painting, 1950–1; and at London University Institute of Education, with William Newland for pottery. Worked in administration for overseas students and the editorial section of the British Council, 1968–88, for nine years in the 1960s and 1970s teaching painting to adults at Woodley Hill House, near Reading. Hellwig John began painting abstracts in the 1960s, creating collage in the 1990s, “colour, structure and balance being important in my work….
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Each time I start a picture I am looking for something, but won’t know what it is till I find it…. There is a landscape sense to much of my work.” Hepworth, Sutherland, van Gogh, Nolde, the Impressionists, Cézanne and Bonnard were quoted as early influences. She was a fellow of Free Painters and Sculptors, other group shows including RWA, 1991; National Acrylic Painters’ Association (of which she was a member), Birmingham, 1995; Courtyard Gallery, Chepstow, 1996; and Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, 2000. Two-man shows included Ben Uri, 1984; Rathaus Galerie, Münster, Germany, 1992; and City Museum & Art Gallery, Gloucester, 1995. Among her later solo exhibitions were the Galerie Collis, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1995, and Guildhall Arts Centre, Gloucester, 1998. Later church painting commissions included a large Tree of Life for St Francis, Long Eaton, 1995, and The Holy Spirit, St Bartholomew, Norbury, 1996. She was a published poet as Hellwig John, her poetry and paintings book English as a Foreign Language appearing in 2000. Hellwig-John sometimes appears hyphenated. Lived in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
