This week we highlight longtime Old Town resident, John Hern, and his pet portrait business. John has been a member of the OTMRA for many years and a resident of the Old Town neighborhood for even longer.
John Hern was raised in southern New Jersey, and moved to Chicago in 1963 to attend The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), graduating in 1967 with a BFA degree (drawing, painting and printmaking).
While in Chicago for school, John moved to Old Town where he rented an old post-fire, frame house (now long demolished) behind a larger three-flat on North Park Avenue just north of North Avenue. Back then the neighborhood was considered “artsy,” and indeed back then many art students, him included, and artists populated the area and frequented its establishments (the old, Old Town Ale House then on the southwest corner of Wieland and North Avenue). Since 1980 his home and studio has been on the second floor of the city’s oldest extant firehouse, Engine Company No. 27, built in 1874 (a designated Chicago Landmark), a boarded-up building at the time of purchase, one that has undergone unending rehab and restoration since, but a true labor of love. “Old Town is home. I’ve been involved with the OTMRA for many, many years now, not always on the best of terms, but now once more have become an avid supporter who appreciates the dedicated staff and the association’s mission within the neighborhood and, in particular, an expanded interest in the south end of Wells Street.“
Painting of necessity took a back seat to his other interests, including architectural history, as the latter provided him with a livelihood. For worked 20 years John worked as a member of the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks’ staff, lastly as the Deputy Director. During his tenure there the Commission designated the Old Town Triangle District a landmark, a project in which he was very much involved. Subsequently, John held a number of part-time jobs which afforded him more time to actively pursue painting. His aim has always been twofold, to combine good painting with an insightful depiction of the sitter’s character.
Portraiture has always intrigued him as he seemed to always a possess a facility and talent for it. John began painting dogs and cats about fifteen years ago. “At first, painting my own pets, then others’ cats and dogs, often as gifts for friends and family, and gradually I began to receive commissions from strangers acquainted with my work through friends. Retiring from the work-a-day world completely about five years ago afforded me the luxury of being able to paint full-time.”
Why pets though?
“Cats and dogs are special.” Of necessity he paint pets from photographs; “it’s difficult enough to get people to sit for portraits, impossible to get cats and dogs to do that. However, before I begin to paint a pet’s portrait, I like to meet the subject with their person(s) and observe their interactions, thus helping to inform me of their personality and character. It is very much a one-on-one situation, which gives me the opportunity to meet and communicate with a wide and diverse range of people and their pets.”
A few years ago John created a small picture gallery of photos of some of his pet portraits in the front foyer of his building at 1244 North Wells Street where his home and studio is located on the second floor. He can be contacted by phone at 312-642-8624 or by email at johned1244@aol.com, and will email additional examples of my work on request. John typically paint pet portraits on 8×10-inch stretched canvases in oil paints, for which I charge a fee of $300. Other options are available.
Some examples of the portraits
