John Stoyles
Vermont, USA
John is a painter based in Vermont whose work explores the quiet presence of everyday places across New England. Originally from Sussex, England, he trained at art college and is both an artist and professional graphic designer. His background in art and design informs a compositional approach rooted in observation, structure and lived experience.
If you’ve seen my work before, you may recognize the feeling it creates. At first glance, the paintings can seem strangely familiar—like places you’ve passed through without stopping, or moments you almost remember but can’t quite place. A low building settled into its surroundings. A road curving away toward somewhere unknown. Light catching the side of a house and shadows gathering on the sidewalk. Nothing announces itself as important, yet the longer you look, the more the scene seems to hold your attention.
My background isn’t only in painting. I grew up in Sussex, England, and for more than 25 years I’ve worked as a professional graphic designer. I now live in Vermont, in the United States. When I first came here, I was drawn not just to the landscape but to the people, the pace, and a surprising sense of familiarity in the architecture and even in the place names.
That mix of familiarity and discovery is something I’m always thinking about when I paint. New England is full of history, though it rarely draws attention to itself. New houses often borrow from older architectural styles so past and present sit comfortably together. Industrial buildings, built to last, continue to stand even as their purposes change. And beyond the buildings themselves, history lingers in other ways—in the wind through the trees, along trails and dirt roads, and in the sense that a place has been lived in for a very long time.
Living in Vermont has sharpened my awareness of how places change. Here, the seasons shape daily life, and that can be seen in my work. The same building can feel completely different depending on the time of year. In winter, the colors compress and the light sharpens; in summer, everything softens and expands. Shadows move differently, surfaces reveal different textures, and familiar places take on new personalities.
While much of my work focuses on New England, I also paint scenes from coastal areas and from the East End of Long Island, where my family has connections. Across these places, I’m particularly interested in how light defines a scene. My paintings are often empty of people, but I don’t think of them as empty spaces. Someone is usually implied—inside a building, just out of sight, or somewhere just beyond the edge of the frame. I like the idea that these are places paused in time, where the viewer can step in and wander without interruption.
That pause matters to me. We live in a culture that moves quickly and rarely stops for quiet observation. My paintings aren’t meant to be nostalgic escapes from modern life, but moments of attentiveness within it. They show the places most of us pass by every day, often without noticing.
Compositionally, I try to avoid the conventions of traditional landscape painting. Instead, I aim for something closer to how we actually experience places in real life. Buildings are sometimes cropped, roads lead out of frame, and viewpoints can feel a little unexpected.
If the work does what I hope, you might find yourself lingering a little longer than expected—returning to an image and noticing details you didn’t see at first. That quiet pull is what I’m after. The paintings don’t demand attention, but they do reward it. And often, it’s the pieces we return to that stay with us—the ones that become more than something we hang, instead creating a space within a space, somewhere to return to, to pause, or simply to enjoy.