John Avon
Avon was born in Cardiff, Wales. He completed an art foundation course near to where he grew up in Cardiff, and gained a BA in graphic design in Brighton. He began his art career in 1983 with commercial advertising. He has painted book covers for authors Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Arthur C. Clark and Harry Harrison. Avon is one of the most prolific "Magic: The Gathering" artists, having painted over 280 unique cards, mostly landscapes on Basic Land cards. For the "World of Warcraft Trading Card Game", he created the image for the "Water Elemental" card which is used in "Hearthstone". In 2014 he successfully used the Kickstarter crowd funding website to raise funds for an illustrated book of his work, "The Art of John Avon: Journeys to Somewhere Else" (2015). Avon is married to the illustrator Patricia MacCarthy, with whom he has two sons and lives in Saltdean, near Brighton and Hove, England. He also composes, plays and records music on the guitar and piano.
Life and work
His work has been compiled in the book "Journeys to Somewhere Else" and used for book covers, CD covers, games, toys and advertising campaigns. Avon is best known for his artworks for the collectible card game "Magic: The Gathering", for which he has produced over 200 paintings.