Remembering John Terry, the artist

A tribute piece in The Gleaner by Howard Campbell

John Terry, the Honorary British Consul who was murdered in St James, last week, is largely remembered for his charity work for the British High Commission in Jamaica's west end. But the 65-year-old was also an art lover who had a passion for painting.

In August 2003, a collection of Terry's pain-tings were displayed at the Bolivar Gallery in St Andrew in an exhibition titled 'Metamorphosis'.

Hugh Dunphy, an Englishman who has lived in Jamaica since the 1960s, is curator of the Bolivar Gallery. He told The Gleaner that he first met Terry during the 1970s.

"Six years ago we decided to do a show together. He was not a successful painter, but his work was good enough," said Dunphy.

Sana Rose covered the exhibition for The Gleaner. Her report said Terry's paintings were water colour and acrylic and ranged from representation to abstract.

"Based on his choice of imagery, Terry seems to be a lover of nature, birds and shells especially, and music. The most engaging pieces of Terry's collection are the abstract and semi-abstract works such as 'Symphony of Colours', 'Red Head' and 'Take it as Red'," Rose wrote.

consistently flat

She observed that Terry's full-time job as a manager in the hotel industry prevented him from devoting more time to painting. That lack of practice, she noted, showed in his work.

"The images are consistently flat, lacking in a strong illusion of form and the use of space is weak. They display no evidence of experimentation or investigation in the development of the images," Rose wrote.

Terry never mounted another exhibition.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, John Terry had lived in Jamaica since 1967. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1992 by the British government and was made an honorary consul the following year.

Police say Terry's body was discovered in his Mount Carey, St James home Wednesday. They have given strangulation as the cause of death.

No arrest has been made.