I was recently contacted by someone asking for more details about a picture they had found by a bin, liked a lot, and taken home. It was nicely framed but not showing a signature on the front, luckily it had a small label stuck on the back saying that the artist was John Busby and […]
Biography
Interesting juxtapositions 1
It’s off to a new owner! The sale of this picture has brought back happy memories of visiting the Old Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh with Dad. On the Royal Mile, deep in Edinburgh’s Old Town this gloriously higgledy-piggledy museum was one of a kind. I remember the small rooms piled high with toys on […]
Birthday95
On Thursday 2nd Feb. 2023 John would have been 95 years old. In celebration of his work we are offering a selection of his drawings and paintings for £95 only and a 10% reduction on other original pictures in our online shop. This special sale will run from Thursday 2nd Feb. 2023 for one week […]
Farfield Meeting House (and Studio)
Farfield Friends Meeting House near Addingham in West Yorkshire is now in the keeping of the Historic Chapels’ Trust www.hca.org.uk but in the late 1950’s and early 60’s John rented it as a studio at a time when he was unsure whether to stay in Edinburgh (where he was teaching at the Edinburgh College of […]
In celebration
In celebration of John’s life and work, the family offer this short film on the fifth anniversary of his death. We feel particularly lucky that he lives on through his pictures and through them we see again the natural world with renewed insight. “The artist’s job is to open eyes – to see what is […]
Birdwatching 75 years ago
Anyone in or around Menston, Yorks, like to re-create this birdwatching walk? It is part of a larger map drawn by John as a teenager in the late 1940’s. Swallows, cuckoos, linnets, willow warblers, skylarks all there then. What would we find today? See original post here
Master Wildlife Artist 2009
In 2009 John Busby was honoured by the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, USA, becoming their Master Wildlife Artist for that year. The museum has run its flagship Birds in Art exhibition since 1976 attracting the very best wildlife art from the USA and internationally, but a Master is not designated every […]
Biography
John Philip Busby (1928 – 2015) John Philip Busby was born in Bradford in 1928 and attended Ilkley Grammar School. After National Service, he studied at Leeds College of Art and then at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) where he was awarded post-graduate and major travel scholarships. On return from France and Italy he was […]
Obituary – British Birds, Sept 2015
For many, the name John Busby is synonymous with acute observations of nature and an enviable ability to capture character, light and movement in just a few simple lines and washes. His work was born from first-hand experience of nature and, as is the case with the very best artists, it encourages fresh ways of […]
Not Just Hockney
The wonderful website www.NotJustHockney.info celebrates the very large number of professional artists born or associated with the city of Bradford, in Yorkshire and of course John Busby was born in the city in 1928, nine years before David Hockney RA. BUSBY, John: ‘My Art’ The local wildlife artist, John Busby, died in 2015. He was […]