The Evolution of a Photorealist
Born in the Sheldon district of Birmingham, John Salt was the son of a motor repair garage owner. His early artistic training began at the Birmingham School of Art, where he studied from 1952 to 1958, followed by studies at the Slade School of Art in London. After teaching at Stourbridge College of Art, he moved to the United States in 1967 to join a Master of Fine Arts programme at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. It was during this period that he moved away from abstract expressionism and Pop Art toward a distinct style. His work transitioned from painting car upholstery from a Buick catalogue to capturing the interiors and exteriors of vehicles through his own photography.
Technique and Subject Matter
Salt's mature style is characterized by an extreme level of detail and precision. He often utilized an airbrush and stencils to reproduce color, a painstaking process that could take up to two years to complete. His paintings frequently feature:
While his early New York City works focused on mangled vehicles found in scrapyards, his later work in England, where he settled in Bucknell, Shropshire, continued to focus on American scenes. In these later years, he transitioned from using acrylic paints to water-based casein. His compositions often emphasized the landscape, sometimes depicting subjects as being hidden by their surroundings.
