John R Townsend FRSA
John Townsend was born in Nottingham in 1930. He studied art at Nottingham College of Art, where he was taught by Arthur Spooner. He also worked alongside other renowned artists, including Sir William Russell Flint, Vernon Wood, Sir Gerald Kelly and Sir James Gunn, all of whom had a profound influence on his work.
John paints primarily in oils and is highly regarded as both a portrait and landscape painter. In recent years he has spent a good deal of his time on commissions in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium.
In 1970 he was commissioned by the City of Nottingham to paint a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a picture that afforded great satisfaction and public acclaim and which now hangs in the Nottingham Council Chambers.