John Edmiston is a self-taught visionary artist who paints in a deep-trance altered state. As a child he saw shapes and apparitions that either calmed or frightened him. He has since learnt how to go into deep meditative trance to enter these inner worlds. The trance states are short-lived, usually just two to three hours, so he paints quickly and on a small scale. These altered states are like a meeting ground, a transcendent inner realm, a sacred inner space, a journey into the unconscious, into the unknown; to meet ancestors, to meet spirits, to meet whatever is there. He uses automatic modes to initiate the creative process and views any work that is brought forth to be a footprint of the encounter, a surviving fragment, a physical trace of the inner vision, a remnant, all that remains of the experience. He believes if humanity fully understood the continuance of consciousness beyond the death of the physical body, it would make for an enormous shift in both personal and collective evolution. He is represented in private collections, in the permanent collection of The College of Psychic Studies, London, and in the Collection of Mediumistic Art, Munich. He also writes, and his novel ‘Ujung Kulon’ was written in a trance-altered state. He is represented by the Henry Boxer Gallery, London.

In new and unique paintings, John Edmiston expands the boundaries of Outsider Art to encompass the imagery of the spiritual. Notions of memory and eternity are conveyed by way of totemic avatars, allowing the viewer to participate in the artist’s own acts of contemplation and enlightenment. Emerging from trance by way of automatic processes, these apparitions, guides and spiritual entities represent a deep connection with an unconscious teeming with significations of otherness and self. Edmiston’s images recall the panoply of mystic deities familiar from eastern mysticism and meditative practices.“I am deeply moved by John’s approach to surrender to the unknown. His work speaks of trust, and of allowing consciousness to unfold without control. The resulting paintings carry a quiet presence that lingers long after the eye has left the image. They remind me that some truths can only be approached through intuition rather than explanation.”
Tony Thorne, Authour