John Piper made artwork very often inspired by landscapes and architecture. He used a range of processes to make his expressive and energetic landscapes, often exaggerating the formal qualities of line, texture and colour. He also painted, printed, illustrated books and made stained glass windows!
Piper loved looking at British landscapes and buildings, and often used these as inspiration for his artwork, he particularly liked to focus on objects in the landscape such as monuments, churches and landmarks.
John Piper continued to focus on landscapes when he was appointed as an official ‘war artist’ at the start of the second world war. Piper would travel around the country to capture buildings that had been bombed and destroyed in the war.
He would use a range of materials to capture the different landscapes, including newspaper, ink, acrylic paint, watercolour paint and collage. He used these methods to capture dramatic landscapes and be able to fully explore surface and mark-making. Piper created pieces with a huge range of shadows, textures and moods.
What themes within ‘Landscape Art’ do you think John Piper was interested in? Texture? Light? Movement? Mark-Making? Or something else?
DOWNLOAD this page below, for free, as an Artist Research handout to use in your lesson. It includes all of the facts and images, and has questions for students to answer.
The Art Teacher 
Hello. My son has just chosen Places and Spaces as his GCSE Exam project and he enjoys drawing particularly gothic architecture and floral/natural landscapes. Do you think John Piper would make a good choice for his first artist research? He’s keen on Ian Murphy but he seems to be more architecture and tonal drawings. Maybe a good starting point. Ultimately, my son wants to combine architectural drawings entwined with trees and flowers, bringing nature into the fabric of the building, but when googling I can’t find any artists doing that … some pointers as to which artists to look at would be much appreciated. He struggled before with how to link artists to his theme and showing a cohesive journey through his sketchbook.
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Thanks for getting in touch – I have just emailed you 🙂
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