Biography
John Samuel Tunnard is best known for his paintings of strange private worlds, which are hard to define, but usually instantly recognisable. His work became partly surrealist, with elements of constructivism reflecting his interest in the technology of space travel.

Many of the paintings are of fantastic constructions in deep space, and betray an interest in entomology, geology and technology. Tunnard studied design at the Royal Academy of Art between 1919 and 1923. He was employed as a textile designer from 1923 to 1929, before going freelance. For a while he and his wife had a textile design business, but increasingly he turned to painting. He exhibited first at the Royal Academy in 1931 and became a member of the London Group in 1934. In 1933 the Tunnards moved to Cornwall and stayed there for the rest of their lives. Initially most of his paintings were realist, typically farms, coastal scenes or birds in flight, and often with gates or telegraph poles guiding the viewer into the far distance; sometimes there was also a hint of something strange.

About 1934, he turned to abstract painting, experimenting with a range of styles and approaches. Klee, Miro and the constructivists most influenced his work, although in the late 1930s and early 1940s Ben Nicholson was also important. By 1940 Tunnard was painting in his own, highly distinctive style - still abstract or semi-abstract, but with a greater influence from the natural world. Although Tunnard was a coastguard during World War II, he produced a medium-sized oil or gouache almost every week. The sea and the cliffs can be sensed in m any of these, but sometimes also the war. He also started to produce works that give the impression of infinite space, which few other artists have done effectively.

Tunnard was highly productive in the immediate post-war years and put a great deal of effort into two commissions for the 1951 Festival of Britain. He was one of sixty artists commissioned to supply a work for the festival art exhibition and one of three to paint a large mural for the festival buildings (the others were Victor Pasmore and Ben Nicholson). The early 1950s were quiet for Tunnard but in the final two years of the decade, he became very active again and the quality and range of the work returned to that of the 1940s. There were many successful exhibitions including several at the McRoberts & Tunnard Gallery, run by his cousin Peter. He continued to paint until he died although his work sometimes suffered towards the end from the effects of a stroke and the death of his wife. Nevertheless highly effective works were produced as late as 1969.

Tunnard had many contacts in the art world of the 1930s. Julian Trevelyan was a particular friend, but letters from Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore and others, and comments in his own record books show that he was keen to discuss artistic matters. However, he was not a joiner of groups if this meant restriction on his freedom as an artist, and in fact refused to join the Penwith Society formed at St Ives in 1949 by Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon. Tunnard has sometimes been called a surrealist and was exhibited several times with well-known surrealists, but this was never a term which strict surrealists applied to him, nor one which he applied to himself, although he did include 'surrealist' in the title of at least one painting.