john m reid

John primarily creates on pieces of furniture or common wooden objects. He typically works with intricate and complex patterns completed in bright and fanciful colors. He draws on his design skills, imagination, and inspiration from his travels around the world.

 

Whether the piece is completed in oil stain, in acrylic or oil paint - look long at his art and you will find colors and patterns combined with unique detail.  After each piece has been transformed into a final work of art, it is given a rich hard vanish finish for durability. 

 

John typically works on pieces of furniture or objects such as picture frames or trays that have been ‘found’.  Every piece is different. The furniture or objects that are worked-on need only to be structurally sound.  He is known to find things to work on in yard sales and thrift shops, or friends will donate furniture they no-longer have a home for. John will rarely work on fine pieces of furniture or antiques.  He sees it as a good thing, to bring new life and appreciation to something that has been overlooked or unnoticed. The redone work is often called ‘sweet found furniture’ or a ‘sweet find’.  

 

John started his artwork with a piece of furniture long forgotten in the basement of a friend.  It was a dusty old cedar chest that had been a bowling trophy but it had great possibilities.   (See the Foot Chest in his work examples.)  Several of his friends consider this one of his best pieces and at their urging he is often working on another ‘sweet find’.