Johnny de Mearns (b.1966) studied at Bath Academy of Art and Wolverhampton University before moving to Paris in 1989 to paint, draw and fish. Four years later he took up a place on the MA in Fine Art Printmaking at the London Institute while simultaneously founding and directing Depo Studios and Gallery in Clapham. In 1996 he returned to his hometown of Bristol to study yoga and the healing arts. De Mearns is passionate about printmaking, dance and the process of generating images.

He works ostensibly as a portrait artist, making large scale watercolours on white velvet and prints with people’s bodies on glass, capturing the experience and perfection of the model in the moment through a kiln firing process. His series Rainbow Warriors sees him work from photographs and found imagery, painting large-scale faces in watercolour on white velvet. In 2019 he is working on a year-long global portrait project in collaboration with Japanese photographer Yoko Sazaki. His Pyrocorpography series are unique, kiln-fired portraits on glass, born out of an immersive creative process which focuses on the medium of glass as a surface through which to offer up and explore corporeality. De Mearns also regularly facilitates groups of adults who want to follow The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.