The automobile is the over-riding theme of John Salts work. Moving to New York in the late 1960s, he was impressed by the sheer scale of the American cars which came to dominate his work. Obsolete, ugly and yet possessing a faded grandeur, he saw these cars as an intrinsic part of the U.S. landscape.

Salt worked from his own photographs of wrecked cars which had been abandoned and left to rust alongside dilapidated mobile homes on the wrong side of town. With their crisp realism, the resulting paintings have the quality of a documentary photograph, recording the feeling of waste and ruin which has resulted from material prosperity. Latterly his work has become more romantic in spirit, featuring spacious suburban houses with their long verandas and parking lots under a soft covering of snow.

A huge amount of skill and patience is involved in producing each work. A small painting takes about eight weeks to complete. The artist first makes a detailed drawing from slides which he projects onto the paper or canvas. Then, referring to a color print, he paints directly onto the drawing using an airbrush to achieve his sharp focus effect. For more detailed parts, such as branches and foliage, he cuts stencils through which he sprays.

John Salt was born in Birmingham in 1937 and trained first at Birmingham College of Art and then at The Slade School of Art in London. When he arrived in the States he abandoned his early abstract style in favor of a more representational approach, soon becoming one of the most popular and significant artists of the American Photo-realist movement. He has taken part in exhibitions all over the world including Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Japan.

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