John Sturgess

John Sturgess
Meet Gizmo

John Sturgess is an artist and painter in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Space, wild seas, flying machines and mushroom houses all find a place in his work.

This site is a growing record of John’s life and work. Browse the painting archive, look around his studio, or read about John and the experiences that have found their way into his art.

Detail: Waves and lightning. Detail: Mushroom house. Detail: Aircraft over mountains. Detail: Cat-like face. Detail: Lightning and a church. Detail: Bear with a purple scarf. Detail: Ship beneath the moon. Detail: Vehicle in a desert.

Paintings & imagined worlds

John likes to have fun with a painting. A mushroom house gets a face, and Gizmo has a complaint about hospital food. There are jokes, odd characters and little details to spot. His humour runs through the work, whether it’s right there in the painted words or takes a moment to catch.

The things John knows and the things he makes up all get a turn. His travels find their way into the paintings, along with places you won’t find on a map. Have a look around, pick a painting, and see what you find.

Follow a thread through the archive: Space, Nature or Transport.

Stormy Sea: Waves and lightning.
Stormy Sea
Night Flight: Aircraft over mountains.
Night Flight
Gallery Cat: Black cat holding a gallery welcome sign.
Gallery Cat

15 paintings in the growing archive.

View the painting archive

The tunnel sculpture

John also makes work about experiences that are difficult to put into words. The eyes that recur in his paintings give form to a face he describes as able to see him while remaining unseen.

His large plaster sculpture models the tunnel and invisible line of his near-death experience in August 2024. Seen from within, it places the viewer at that threshold.

Read John’s account and see the sculpture
A view up the steps inside the sculpture towards a bright, multicoloured opening.
Inside John’s tunnel sculpture.

At home in the studio

John’s home is also his studio. Paintings hang on the walls and model planes sit on the shelves. He works at a small table in the kitchen, surrounded by the things he likes to paint.

Visit the studio John’s life and travels
John leaning over a board and painting at a small table in the kitchen.

Meet Gizmo

Gizmo is John’s teddy bear and lifelong companion. His full title is OBE PhD PI: professional idiot. John loves telling people this and often cracks up in the telling.

Gizmo also has a life in the paintings, with adventures of his own.

More about Gizmo

Past shows

John’s paintings have been shown at drive-thru in Newtown and Jhana Millers Gallery in Wellington. Read the exhibition story.