The American-born Hubbard had only just settled in the UK at that point in time and the influence of abstract expressionism on his use of texture and colour is clear. Looking at these works today, we also see the extent to which Hubbard brought a fresh eye and radical technique to the traditions of English landscape painting. Yet Hubbard also acknowledged his affinity with the landscape painters of the past such as Turner and Courbet.

In the works selected for this exhibition, Hubbard’s unique sense of ‘place’ has been rendered in his characteristically dramatic fashion. Instead of portraying the specific features of a location, Hubbard merges light and landscape together with sky and sea to create an overall atmosphere and feeling. John Hubbard was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut (USA) and educated at Harvard University. Having completed military service in Japan, in 1956-58 he studied at the Art Students League in New York and with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Mass. Hubbard lived in Rome for two years before settling in Dorset in 1961, the year in which he also had his first exhibition with the New Art Centre. John Hubbard’s work is in major public and private collections around the world including the Art Gallery of Ontario; Philadelphia Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Yale Center for British Art and in the UK in Tate; the Arts Council Collection; British Council; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has had solo exhibitions at the Fitzwilliam Museum; Waddesdon Manor; Modern Art, Oxford; the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham amongst many others as well as an exhibition of twenty five years of drawings at Kew Gardens.