John Chrisp
His Leamington workshop is a visual tribute to his skills as a painter and a framer.
John Chrisp has spent the last 18 years putting people’s memories in the frame – but this week he has taken the sign down outside his home.
It really is the end frame.
“I’ve worked five days a week since I was 18,” he explained.
His key tools of the trade – his hands – are stricken with arthritis and gripping things has become increasingly difficult – “I’ve had some horrible near misses”.
Coupled with that, demand for his services slowed in 2023.
It’s hard to compete with competition from The Warehouse and Briscoes – but he has still successfully upsold his product over the years.
There is nothing to beat a well framed picture – particularly when the glass used is 99 per cent UV resistant.
For many years he was completing two frames a day and that kept him “more than happy”.
Despite what people might say, nothing in a sunlit room escapes the ravages of direct sun – think about those book spines and, if you have them, the CD and DVD spines which end up a completely different colour. Then think about that happening to a cherished family picture.
He has made thousands of frames since completing five months of study at The Fine Art Trade Guild and qualifying as a conservation grade framer.
There have been tiny frames – and big ones – one three metres long showing the map of the world.
“I could frame anything in my day,” he says.
John was born in Gisborne in 1947 and his family owned a sports and music retail business – later it branched into electrical goods.
“I got into the business in 1968 and Dad wanted me to take over…”
But the great OE – overseas experience – had whetted his appetite for something different and his next life was as a flight attendant, a job he had at Air New Zealand for 28 years.
He also developed his skills as an artist and staged two successful exhibits in Auckland.
He loved painting aircraft from World War 2 – the extraordinarily intricate work evident on pictures in his studio is something he says he can no longer achieve. Today he concentrates on still life.
John moved to Cambridge from Taupō in 2005 and opened for business.
In 2024, business is closed – but the man who put his first frame together as a seven year old of a Rolls-Royce cut from a magazine has plenty to keep him going.
Driving his Jaguar, for example.
John Chrisp – with his first framing effort, which he did as a seven year old.
