John Lawrence

John Lawrence's original wood & vinyl engraved prints, some with hand painted finishes, are available for purchase from Children's Book Illustration.

Please note: I've put the illustrations which are "Artist's Proofs" under the Original Artwork section as John percieves them as originals. Those that are from a numbered edition I've put under the Prints section. However, both categories have some which John has hand coloured in watercolour.

John Lawrence was born in Hastings in 1933 and educated by the Salesians, first in Burwash, Sussex, then in Cowley, Oxford. He attended Hastings School of Art from 1951 - 1953. He did his military service in West Africa, between 1953 - 1955. He then went on to the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central St. Martins), from 1955 - 1957.

Since then he has freelanced, illustrating more than 250 books, some of which he has also written. His work covers a wide range from picture books for children to adult works including the best-selling Watership Down by Richard Adams, Philip Pullman's Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North and to be published later this year, Wayland, by Tony Mitton published by David Fickling. He has twice won The Francis Williams Award for illustration (sponsored by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London), and twice been runner-up for the Kurt Emil - Maschler Award.

He has been a part-time lecturer for most of his career. First at Brighton School of Art in the 1960's and then at Camberwell School of Art until 1993, where he was a visiting Professor in Illustration. At present he is visiting Professor at A.P.U. Cambridge School of Art, where he lectures on the M.A. course in Children's Book Illustration. From 1978 until 1994 he was an External Assessor on the degree course at several art schools.

He was master of the Art Workers Guild in 1990 and is a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, the Double Crown Club and the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers.

His work is in several public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Ashmolean, Manchester Metropolitan University (an archive), Seven Stories (the National Centre for Children's Books) in Newcastle, as well as in collections in the U.S.A.

A wonderful account of John's working methods is described in Joanna Carey's interview for The Guardian in 2003.