John Hurford

John Hurford (born 1948) is a prolific English psychedelic artist. He was born on a farm in Chulmleigh, Devon, England 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 he was a contributor to all three of the most influential and important underground publications of the 1960s: Oz (magazine), Gandalf's Garden and International Times.

He is an honorary member of the South West Academy. His work has been reproduced in many magazines and books since the nineteen sixties and his early work is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. He has been shown in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney in New York and The Tate Gallery in Liverpool.

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 lives.

He started to work on the farm immediately on leaving school at sixteen and continued to draw and paint. In the late sixties he successfully submitted work to counter-culture magazines. He painted in the evenings while working on the farm. He continued to work on books and produced fine art paintings, first in oils then in acrylics, pencil and watercolour. He has had many books published, has had many exhibitions locally and in New Zealand, France and London.

In 2001 he started painting full time still designing posters and album covers including Gryphon (Band), Judy Dyble, Lowell Lovinger (The Youngbloods), Barry Melton, It's a beautiful Day, Martin Stone (guitarist) but concentrates on fine art painting – usually in acrylic on canvas, paper or wood panel.