John Shelton (April 1923 – April 1993) was an English painter and ceramic artist born in Shelton,

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

. Shelton attended the

Burslem School of Art Burslem School of Art was an art school in the centre of the town of Burslem in the Potteries district of England. Students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry. Pottery was made on the site of the school from th ...

from 1937 to 1942 where he studied under Reginald Haggar.''Death of Art Student - Fall Down Stairs'', The Sentinel, 20 December 1943 A contemporary and friend of Arthur Berry, he was awarded a scholarship for the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, London which he joined in 1945. He left the Slade in March 1946 due to the financial hardships of artistic life in LondonArthur Berry, ''A Three and Sevenpence Halfpenny Man'', Kermase Editions (1884) pp. 182-9 before returning to complete his scholarship from 1948-50. It was this in-between period in which Shelton changed his name from Hancock. Shelton was in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...

in the mid 1940s and was in the circle of John Minton,

Robert Colquhoun Robert Colquhoun (20 December 1914 – 20 September 1962) was a Scotland, Scottish Painting, painter, printmaker and theatre Scenic design, set designer. Colquhoun was born in Kilmarnock and was educated at Kilmarnock Academy. He won a s ...

and

Robert MacBryde Robert MacBryde (5 December 1913 – 6 May 1966) was a Scotland, Scottish still-life and figure painter and a theatre Scenic design, set designer. Early life and career MacBryde was born in Maybole, Ayrshire, to John MacBryde, a cement laboure ...

, Colquhoun in particular providing artistic influence.M.G. McNay, ''John Shelton Exhibition'', The Guardian, 8 March 1965, p. 9 Shelton's best-known work is the series of Cat and Table paintings,Christies (South Kensington) catalogue, ''20th Century British Art'', 12 July 2012. and the Potteries Museum acquired one such example in 1988. British artist and critic Reginald Haggar noted that Shelton "was one of a richly endowed bunch of students who have gone on to enrich the tradition of oil nd watercolourpainting in this country and the field of art teaching".Reginald Haggar, ''Newcastle art master shows his work'', The Sentinel, c. 1970 Shelton produced a large series of monotypes. Shelton was also a prolific pottery-maker, and he incorporated themes from

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

in several of his ceramic pieces.

Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describe ...

, the

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...

and the

centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

were typical subjects. Shelton's work resides in the

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free. One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum ...

Public Catalogue Foundation, ''Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Staffordshire'', p. 154 and in many private collections, including those of the actor

Freddie Jones Frederick Charles Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916-2005.''; at ancestry.com (12 September 1927 – 9 July 2019) was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for a ...

and the late

Pat Phoenix Patricia Phoenix Booth (born Patricia Frederica Manfield; 26 November 1923 – 17 September 1986) was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role as Elsie Tanner, an original cast member ...

.The Sentinel, ''Stray cat turns up at auction'', The Sentinel 06/07/2012, p. 14. Shelton's work was most recently exhibited in October 2012 alongside that of fellow students Arthur Berry and Norman Cope.''The Sentinel'', 19 October 2012, "Exhibition brings art school pals togethe

, Accessed 4 June 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelton, John 1923 births 1993 deaths People from Shelton, Staffordshire British contemporary painters Alumni of Burslem School of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 20th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English male artists