About

1957 to 2019

John McDermott’s work is best described as existential, using art as another language. As seen from his early representational work to the abstract, always looking to express thought, emotion, speculation and imagination that comprise our human involvement with nature.

A career served former military serviceman and life long painter, founder of Aftermath PTSD, Art For Heroes and organiser of many veterans art exhibitions, attracting thousands of visitors, together with local and national press interest. Mc Dermott also delivers Art Workshops, where participants are able to safely experience, ‘Present Centred Awareness’. These workshops have become popular with military and civilian charities and social enterprises, incorporating them in their own healing programmes. Notably, Mc Dermott has taken these workshops across the country and more recently to Norway at the invite of the Norwegian Art Therapists Association and the Norwegian Veterans Artist Programme. These proved very successful with Mc Dermott being invited to return to Norway in 2016.

Painter in Uniform: Joining the Royal Navy in 1972, he began a service career that would see him travelling all over the world and in many major conflict zones that would later shape his life and have a profound affect on his artistic work. Known as a ‘painter in uniform’, he was frequently commissioned to depict conflict oriented scenes many of which still hang in military establishments. In 1985 this led to him being noticed and befriended by the late John Craxton RA. It was Craxton who encouraged him to break away from his ‘safe’ representational style to cultivate a much more insightful production of works. Since then Mc Dermott’s peers began to describe his work as ‘existential’ or ‘non-temporal’.

Early Life: Mc Dermott was born in Glasgow and from an early age showed a much remarked natural talent for visual arts. This talent was encouraged and developed, providing the impetus to his winning various regional and national school art competitions. The result of which allowed him early entry to the prestigious Glasgow School of Art. However, shortly afterwards, he joined the Royal Navy mostly due to prevailing social and family circumstances.

1957 - Born in Blantyre near Glasgow, to Foundry Worker John Mc Dermott and mother Betty Eadie who together with his whole family positively encouraged his natural artistic ability.

1962 - 72  Attended St Joseph’s RC School Blantyre where he was further encouraged to paint, winning various regional art competitions, leading to early scholarship entry to the Glasgow School of Art, which he briefly attended before joining the Royal Navy as a boy in the summer of ‘72.

1972 – 2000  Career with the Royal Navy, travelling extensively around the world, experiencing military conflict in many places.  War and the self-destructive nature of mankind would later feature prominently in his paintings.  During this time he met up and forged a strong friendship with the artist John Craxton RA whose influence still shows up in his work. Numerous exhibitions throughout this time.

2000 – 2008  Head of Security at the Old Bailey, London.  Now unknowingly suffering from Combat Related Trauma he finds respite in much more existential paintings, attracting many commissions and offers to exhibit. This led to a sell out exhibition on the Falklands Islands, in turn raising funds for the Veterans Refuge on the Islands.

2008 – 2019.  Now living in Exeter, Devon, with artist and wife Anna McDermott, realising a life long ambition of working full time as an Artist.   In 2009 he set up the social enterprise, Aftermath PTSD to raise awareness and Art for Heros as a way to assist other trauma sufferers through remedial, existential art, both in the UK and Norway. This in turn led to 4 major exhibitions attracting national media coverage.  In 2014 Aftermath PTSD and Art for Heroes achieved their objectives and were closed down.

Written by John McDermott