John Hooper, was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 sculptor known for his colourful polychrome

Polychrome

Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. It has also been defined as "The practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." Polychromatic light is composed of a number of different wavelengths...

d wood carvings. His works can be found on public display in many locations throughout Canada and worldwide.

Biography

Born in England, Hooper also spent time in his youth in China, and served as a captain in the British Army in India in 1944. Hooper was educated at the Royal College of Art

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

 and Bournemouth College of Art (now The Arts Institute at Bournemouth

The Arts Institute at Bournemouth

The Arts University College at Bournemouth is a further and higher education university college based in Poole, United Kingdom specialising in arts, performance, design, and media...

), and studied with sculptor Jacob Epstein

Jacob Epstein

Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...

. After teaching at the University of Natal

University of Natal

The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...

 in South Africa from 1956 to 1962, he moved to New Brunswick, Canada, where he lived for the rest of his life, for many years working as a school teacher and administrator before devoting himself full-time to art in 1974.

Hooper was married to Kathy, an artist from South Africa who herself won the Strathbutler Award in 1994. With her he had four children and founded Hooper Studios, a centre for art and art education in Hampton, New Brunswick

Hampton, New Brunswick

Hampton is a Canadian town in Kings County, New Brunswick.Located on the Kennebecasis River 30 kilometres northeast of Saint John, Hampton is the shire town of Kings County...

.

Works on public display

Hooper's art can be seen in Market Square and outside the National Arts Centre

National Arts Centre

The National Arts Centre is a centre for the performing arts located in Ottawa, Ontario, between Elgin Street and the Rideau Canal...

 in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, in Sinclair Centre

Sinclair Centre

Sinclair Centre is an upscale shopping mall in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. It is located at 757 West Hastings Street between Granville and Howe streets. The centre comprises four buildings that were restored by Henriquez Partners Architects in 1986 at a cost of $38 million. The main post...

 in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, at the Centennial Building in Fredericton, New Brunswick

Fredericton, New Brunswick

Fredericton is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art...

, in several places around Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

, and at the Pilgrim School in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

.
The New Brunswick Museum

New Brunswick Museum

The New Brunswick Museum, located in Saint John, New Brunswick is Canada's oldest continuing museum. The New Brunswick Museum was officially incorporated as the "Provincial Museum" in 1929 and received its current name in 1930, but its history goes back much further. Its lineage can be traced back...

 houses several more of his works as does the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
His bronze statue of Terry Fox stands on Wellington Street in Ottawa, across the street from the national Parliament Buildings.

Awards and honours

In 1991, Hooper was the first recipient of the Strathbutler Award For Fine Craft And Visual Arts, a CDN$10,000 annual award given by the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation for New Brunswick artists. In 2000, he won the Miller Brittain Award for Excellence in Visual Arts from the New Brunswick Art Board and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

.

Additional sources

• Artist's statement, John Hooper, Hooper Studios.
• "John Hooper's Way With Wood" (1977), an 18-minute documentary sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada
  National Film Board of Canada
  The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
  
  , on IMDb.
• Tom Smart, "L'univers de John Hooper", Goose Lane Editions, 2001, ISBN 978-0920674277.