Brilliant, vigorous, pugnacious, Clymer has reached fame the hard way. Sure of his genius in his formative years in Vancouver, he was openly hostile to convention. Realism was his bugbear and his broad, rich, powerful brush was at once the lure and dismay of editors and teachers.

     Clymer's father was a Washington gardener who hoped some day to see Johnny helping him market flowers in Seattle. The lad kicked over the traces, came to Vancouver to live with his uncle, Dr. A.J. Damon, a veterinary, and marketed his first drawing in a milk producers' magazine.

     An early Clymer mural, which for years decorated the B.C.E.R. depot, had strength and character, but featured an over-anatomized cow which boasted more joints than any other bovine in the Fraser Valley.

     Without openly retreating from his attacks on convention, the alert lad gradually learned draughtsmanship and his work soon stood out among that of the brilliant younger set of the Vancouver of a decade and a half ago. He illustrated a catalogue for David Spencer's, began working for The Vancouver Daily Province, sold a few paintings, received acceptances from Maclean's and other national magazines.

     He studied for a period under Varley, went briefly and skeptically to an art school, then came in contact with the trio of elderly gentlemen who gave turning point to his work. They were George Southwell, John Innes, and John Radford. From them he learned the rudiments and essentials of art from the ground up.

     Patient, kindly, loving they directed him while recognizing the full value of his vigor and originality. He opened a studio with Southwell in the Empire Block and his short stalky figure became a popular one in argumentative art circles.

     Clymer never forgot his old friends' kindness and his tribute to them took the form of one of his few portrait sketches. Though his wife has sat occasionally for his illustrations of women, he has eschewed the merely pretty type as lacking character.

     From Vancouver Clymer went to Toronto, still breezily rebellious, astounding students in the Ontario College of Arts by his expressed opinion of eastern conventions in art. Here he was befriended by Principal J.W. Beatty and pursued his work in an attic loaned him by Beatty.

Spirit of the Outdoors In His Work

     By this time he was equipped to front the world with original canvases showing skilled technique. His nudes attracted attention. Though the wolf some times came close enough for Clymer "to smell its breath," he sold illustrations to editors and canvases at exhibitions. Soon his fame became international. His annual exhibitions at Simpson's in Toronto are now events. They carry the spirit of the Cariboo, the western mountains and of outdoor eastern scenes.

     From Toronto he bearded the artists' centres in the States, and has since ascended the peaks with amazing speed. He sold illustrations to national American magazines and taught decorative art at Wilmington, Delaware. Three years ago he was chosen to illustrate a book by H.G. Wells.

     Recently Clymer bought a farm at Westport, Connecticut, which he has converted into a studio. He pays occasional visits to British Columbia and to Washington, where Johnny some years ago married a boyhood friend. He is still in his early thirties.

     Mature now in his art, Clymer still is master of the bold, powerful and imaginative execution, which won admiration in his younger days in Vancouver.