By LISA BICKNELL
CV&T News Editor
Many locals have never forgotten the speed painting demonstrations performed by local artist John Hatfield in a couple of Estill’s Got Talent competitions a few years ago.
As John quickly applied paint to a canvas, a recording of John Lennon’s “Imagine” played in the background.
It was not apparent what he was painting until the song came to an end, and he flipped the canvas to reveal the face of Lennon to the crowd.
John later won a talent show with a speed painting done to Michael Jackson’s “Face in the Mirror.”
He first began to show promise as an artist when he was just a boy.
John took lessons from Russell and Delores McClanahan beginning when he was about eleven.
“I always liked to draw when I was little,” he said.
In a few weeks, John was painting with adults, as the McClanahans saw the need to place him in a more advanced class.
During high school, John was accepted into the Governor’s School for the Arts in 1996. He later studied art at the University of Louisville and Eastern Kentucky University, where he learned to work in many mediums. His preferred ones became oils and watercolors, although they are not the only ones he’s tried.
John sculpted the model for the train sculptures that were painted by various groups, organizations and individuals and are displayed at the Mountain Mushroom Festival each year.
Working with metal sculpture gave him one of the scares of his life. John became temporarily blinded when using a welder, because he wasn’t wearing the correct kind of eye protection.
Wondering if he would ever see again was “the scariest thing for an artist,” he said. After a few weeks, his eyes healed and he could see again.
John also painted the mural on the wall facing the Irvine bridge in 2008 during Irvine’s Bicenntennial Year.
He has won awards from the Lexington Art League and the Morehead Arts Guild.
His artwork has been purchased by people who live as far away as Las Vegas and Canada.
John has also taught art lessons locally and hopes to do that again soon.
He will be in the Featured Artist’s Corner at the Estill Arts Council booth on Saturday, April 25, from 2 to 4 p.m.