ABOUT

John Hurford was born on a farm in Devon in 1948 and began painting soon after he left school in 1964. Self-taught and with no formal training, he quickly became one of the real forces behind the British psychedelic art movement, and was the ONLY psychedelic artist of his generation to contribute to all three of the most influential and important underground publications of the 1960s - OZ Magazine, International Times and Gandalf's Garden.

His early work (as much of it still is today) was crowded with flowers, birds and insects - highly detailed observations from the natural world he saw around him in the Devon countryside where he lived. It was often coupled with finely drawn Tolkienesque fantasy landscapes, people and mythical beings; goblin-like creatures were a favourite, as were naked girls.

His psychedelic style of painting and the subjects he chose were extremely influential - young people (especially those within the emerging art school culture at the end of the 1960s) instantly related to it, and it sparked off a trend in itself when it first appeared.

In the 1970s, John began to get involved in book illustration and over the years has produced work for over 80 book titles including several of his own.

He is now still producing album covers for them music industry and exhibits his fine art in various galleries

In 2019 he went to Peninsular Malaysia to start a project on the Batek people, books, photographs and stories.

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