"Hollywood II: The 80’s"

“Hollywood II: The 80’s” grew out of elements that nearly made their way into previous compositions — like John-Mark's desire to include the Blues Brothers in Take Me Back, or to celebrate Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. Add to that his lifelong admiration for Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford, and the concept slowly came into focus. The 1980's were a defining era of storytelling and cinematic imagination, especially within science fiction and adventure — genres John-Mark has spent years researching because of their cultural importance and how iconic much of the imagery is. Growing up during that decade, these films became part of his visual language and personal history. From quintessential heroes to unforgettable moments, every element in this painting resonates deeply with John-Mark, making the process both exhilarating and deeply personal for him. When a subject excites him this much, that energy finds its way into the work — and Hollywood II: The 80’s stands as a joyful tribute to the movies that shaped a generation and a fulfilling milestone within John-Mark's portfolio.

"Hollywood: The 80's" is available as a 24" x 48" oil on panel original, 5 Printer's Proofs, 25 Artist's Proofs, (195) 12" x 24" and (95) 24" x 48" Limited Edition giclées. There are also (5) 30" x 60", (10) 24" x 48" and (15) 12" x 24" sublimations on metal available.

Born in 1976, John-Mark Gleadow had already achieved gallery representation by the time he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Delaware in 1999. Renowned for his skill as a draftsman and ability for creating hyper realistic oil paintings, he has gone on to garner various awards, solo shows and grants and has been met with commercial success in the numerous galleries carrying his work from coast to coast in the United States and beyond.

Early influences on the young artist were Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali and VerMeer. “I fell in love with the beauty of their imagery and have always been in awe of their amazing gift for depicting reality, or their version of it. My desire is that my abilities would be used for creating works that are beautiful and that, when viewed as a whole, convince the viewer not only that what they’re seeing is real but that there’s truth in it. For that reason I find strict photorealism a somewhat unsatisfying undertaking.”

Beginning with still lifes, John-Mark’s paintings soon came to have portraiture as their backbone. With his mastery of the medium his trademark use of vibrant colors has come to the fore – an element of his work made the more fascinating due to his having to cope with his own colorblindness. His most recent series has fused the centuries old theme of painting book spines with his love of doing figurative work and has allowed him to broaden the thematic horizons of his paintings. “The wonderful thing about working in this vain is how limitless the subject matter can be and how it makes for a logical way of juxtaposing entirely different topics, producing a work of art that’s beautiful as a whole, not just aesthetically, but thematically as well.”