JOHN SYKES

Table of Contents

• I. BIOGRAPHY
• II. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
• III. EARLY SANTA BARBARA PAINTERS
• IV. WORKS FOR SALE BY THIS ARTIST

I. BIOGRAPHY

Little is known about Sykes early life except that he was born in England in the mid-1800's. A story often told in Santa Barbara is that Sykes was difficult to diswade once he had come to a conviction. In the case of his youth, a story is circulated that he had an arguement with his father, left England and never spoke to him again. Apparently young Sykes' ire so carried the emerging artist that he traveled as far away from his father as possible...which was Santa Barbara, California.

Had this been the only tale of Sykes anger, the moniker "Madman" might not have stuck. However, Sykes mad moments were legendary. It is said that once Sykes became angry with an individual, he never forgot. It was, in a sense, a lifelong grudge. Thus Sykes nickname of "Madman" did not refer to his being crazy, but to his notorius ability to carry a grudge.

Perhaps the most notorius tale of Sykes anger has to do with Thomas Edison. Sykes was outraged at the invention of the electric light for use in homes and on the street. Sykes thought that this brash new invention took the romance out of life. For Sykes the electric light took away some of life's cherished mystery. Because of Sykes dispute with Edision Sykes refused to allow electricity to be installed in his home.

True to his word, Sykes never allowed electricity to be brough into his home. The current owners of the Sykes' Santa Barbara home speak less than lovingly of the difficulty of having to deal with Sykes not having made provision for wiring, plugs, panels or any form of electricity.

II. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

There are only a dozen paintings by Sykes in local Santa Barbara institutional collections. Over the past 20 years Sullivan Goss has seen or offered another 20 or 30 of the artist's works. As a consequence it is very difficult to provide a comprehensive analysis of this artist's work. With that limitation, there are several observations to be made. He produced both watercolors and oils. The watercolors are on papers of varying quality, some professional watercolor paper, some inferior acidic papers. His oil paintings weere similarly prepared. Some are on high quality European canvas, others on lesser fabrics or boards and one noted oil is on two pieces of cheap burlap that had been stitched together to make one large canvas. One other 30" x 40" canvas was on thin, construction gypsum board.

Sykes seems to have been at his best when he worked on small , delicate views which included Santa Barbara's coastline. He also tended to use a medium in his oils and he often finished his canvases with a heavy coating of protective varnish. Today these two elements combine to give his paintings a yellowish cast.

His style was that of a 19th century genre painter. His work is often ponderous and heavy. He, like many painters of his day, would sketch out of doors and finish his canvases in the studio. Consequently there is very little sense of the sunlight coming from a specific direction. As one might expect there is also very little sense of shadow in most of his paintings. He was known to do lovely views of the Santa Barbara mission and occasionally traveled to other missions to paint. Though uncommon, he would sometimes paint other architectural views of Santa Barbara including the city's aging adobes. When Sykes was at his best he would inlude delicate details in his paintings that artists with better training would avoid. Consequently some of Sykes paintings are most sought after for these tiny elements of a bygone era.

It should be noted that the quality of Mr. Sykes' work varies substantially. Some work appears hurried and rough, other works can hold their own in a museum.

III. EARLY SANTA BARBARA PAINTERS

In the mid 1800's the population of Santa Barbara, though still small, was greater than that of Los Angeles. Several fine painters were attracted to Santa Barbara and took up permanent residence. These included the venerable Henry Chapman Ford and later Alexander Harmer and his student Mary Stevens Fish. Of these early painters Sykes may have been the least trained and most amateurish.

In a small city like early Santa Barbara there would have been a limited number of collectors. One can imagine that the finer homes had works by Harmer or Ford. The other collectors in this early village, or more likely early travelers to Santa Barbara, were fortunate to take home a painting by this early Santa Barbara painter, John Sykes.