John Green spent forty years working as a 'dockie' in Portsmouth Dockyard. He is now working as a professional artist and hands that once hauled the rigging are now recording the glory days of Portsmouth Dockyard for posterity.

John was just fifteen when he was employed straight from school as a yard boy in the rigging section of Portsmouth Dockyard. His dad was a welder beyond the 'high walls' and he, like so many young men in the city, was destined to carry on the family tradition. As he began his apprenticeship an artistic talent first discovered in the classroom was forgotten. Almost half a century later John Green combines the two, spending time drawing and painting scenes and memories of dockyard life from a time when it dominated the city.

His images, constructed with mixed media, layering and an experimental approach to mark-making, recall the glory days of twenty thousand men working at the dockyard. One of his specific memories is of the huge phalanx of cyclists pouring out of the gates of the dockyard at 'muster time' - a sight to behold.

John’s artworks are not available for sale.