Meet John Henken
Stories Behind the Art
All the way back in the ‘70’s while a student at the University of Maryland I attended Dr. Arthur Wheelock’s ‘Northern Renaissance and Baroque Art’ course with my friend, Nick. Dr. Wheelock is retired now but was also a world-class museum curator at the National Gallery of Art in WDC. My friend, Nick, passed away not many years later. We loved that class and how we received the latest research news from the NGA. I have always thought my friend would have been a very good artist.
Fifteen years later while still learning what and how to paint, I asked my former teacher for a tutorial reference. He was most helpful and referred me to Mark DaSoullas, a Vermeerist painter from MD, who let me observe his studio process.
In Virginia in the ‘90’s, I took what I could from public painting classes by Danni Dawson and Kurt Schwarz and others at the Torpedo factory in Alexandria, VA. I apprenticed with color realist painter Peter Thrasher (master Nelson Shanks) for nearly two years from 2010-2011. Peter introduced me to John Bannon (master Jacques Meroget) who taught me from 2011-2012.
I showed and sold art in Cudahy’s Art Gallery in Richmond, VA and in Marita Gilliam Gallery in Raleigh, NC in the ‘90’s and early ‘00’s.
I was a FT administrator in the English-as-a-Foreign-Language department at Anne Arundel CC retiring in 2020.
My good friend from HS days, Ed Berger, is the one who gets the credit for advising me and helping me build this website. I am most grateful, thank you, my friend.
LOVEJOYPEACEGOD
John