About John Pendray
John Pendray was born in London just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. It was as a young boy in the small seaside fishing town of St. Ives in Cornwall, where he spent his summers far away from the Luftwaffe’s nightly bombing raids over the capital, that John developed his life-long fascination with the sea, sailing and painting.
After the war, John applied to the prestigious St Martin’s School of Art where he was awarded a place to study fine art. After graduating, coming from a family dedicated to service, he initially chose to become a teacher at a comprehensive boys school. Promoted to the position of Head of Art, for over a decade John spent his weeks teaching painting, sculpture and ceramics, and his weekends indulging his love of sailing boats, racing single handed dinghies.
By now in his early thirties, John was settled and well respected within the school, but starting to wonder quietly to himself whether the rest of his life would look much the same or whether, there might perhaps be room for just a little more adventure. In 1967 the catalyst for change arrived. Her name was Michèle, the new assistante francaise in his school's language department. John and Michèle were married in 1969 and moved back to Michèle’s home city of Marseille in 1970.
Armed with only a handful of words of French - spoken with a strong British accent - John set about earning a living. He used his artistic skills to find work with architects and designers, creating concepts and artwork for various architectural and design projects, in particular working on the design of the Singapore subway, designing the signage of the Palais des Festivals at Cannes, creating murals for the nuclear power station of Tricastin and the metro stations of Gare St Charles, Noailles and Rond Point du Prado in Marseille.
In Marseille, John also developed his love of sailing: he renovated a 5.5JI classic keelboat and designed and built from scratch a traditional Bette Marseillaise sailboat, that he sailed in the gusty winds of the bay of Marseille (to the constant delight of his young daughter and the consistent terror of Michèle).
Yet John yearned to paint for himself - it was in the summer of 1988, that John finally managed to set aside a month to paint in a mas that Michele had rented for him in the Provence countryside with the instructions “Paint!”
From that moment on, John dedicated his time to his painting. He held his first exhibition in the Arcenaulx gallery in Marseille where the vast majority of his paintings were sold. Over the following decade, he held exhibitions at venues including the Salle Pleyel in Paris, le Musée de la Marine in Paris, the Yacht Club of Monaco, the Yacht Club de France in Paris, the Musée de la Marine in St Tropez, and Christie’s in London. Having won the bronze medal for two years running at the Salon de la Marine in Paris, John was awarded the title of Peintre Officiel de la Marine Nationale Française in 2001 and made a life member in 2007. Please see the official site: https://peintreofficieldelamarine.fr/?s=John+Pendray
John, as a Capitaine de Corvette an honorary office in the French navy, joined French naval ships as artist in residence on missions to Polynesia, New Caledonia, the Caribbean, the Balkans, Russia, the Oman sea and the North Atlantic. He also joined a successful naval mission in search of the sunken wrecks of Laperouse’s two ships in the Solomon Islands, and recorded his experiences in his travel diaries which were subsequently published.
In recognition of his services to the Navy, in 2024 John was awarded the title of Chevalier de L’Ordre National du Mérite Maritime.
More than fifty years after he arrived, John Pendray still lives in Marseille, holds dual French and British citizenship, and now speaks fluent French (still spoken with a strong British accent). John’s paintings are inspired by his love of the sea and sailing, be it the sun-speckled blue waters of the Mediterranean, the dark swell of the English Channel, or the warm turquoise seas of Asia and Polynesia. His images are based on his personal experiences, his travels all over the world and a life-long love affair with the sea and sailing.