LANDSCAPES, CHARCOAL AND CHAOS: JOHN THOMPSON

We’ve been saying it from the start that this isn’t just about tools, it’s about the artists who bring them to life. That’s why we’re starting the MAD Mafia, a collective space to highlight the voices, stories, and creative journeys of this community.

Meet John, a landscape watercolorist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. When he’s not exploring the countless parks near his home, he’s sketching out black-and-white notans to prepare for finished works in color. His art shifts between tightly representational and loosely abstract, but always carries the same heartbeat: chasing the sublime through chaos.

After stumbling across YouTube videos of @madcharcoal John felt a connection to the MAD process. For him, there’s something about smearing tones of charcoal dust across the page, then carving back into it with a kneaded eraser and blending stumps to sculpt order from energy, detail from chaos.