John Ennis is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 painter born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...

. Ennis is a portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

 painter and former book-cover illustrator; his paintings currently hang in over 100 fine art collections worldwide. He has over a thousand published book cover illustrations to his credit.

Background

He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and studied painting at the Art Students League of New York

Art Students League of New York

The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...

 under Jack Faragasso and Robert Emil Shulz and privately with Michael Aviano, all former students of Frank J. Reilly

Frank J. Reilly

Frank J. Reilly A.N.A. was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and teacher. He taught drawing and painting at the Grand Central School of Art, and illustration at Pratt Institute and Moore College of Art. However, he is best known for his twenty-eight years of instructing at the Art...

.[1]

Life and work

Establishing a career in the 1980s as a freelance book cover illustrator, John Ennis illustrated for American publishers including Random House and its subsidiaries, Ballantine Books, Bantam Books, and Dell Books. Also other American publishers including Kensington Books, Dorchester Publishing, Berkley Books, Harper Collins, Penguin Books, New American Library, Pocket Books and Canadian publisher Harlequin Enterprises.
Trained as an oil painter, Ennis used this medium for illustration until the mid-1990s. He helped pioneer digital illustration by introducing it to the book publishing industry as an illustration medium. In 1997 he authored the book Going Digital, An Artist's Guide to Computer Illustration published by Madison Square Press. In the same year he served on the faculty of the Macworld Expo in Boston. He was interviewed for an article in Newsweek Magazine for the article Throw Out The Brushes.
Ennis left illustration in 2002 and became a fine artist. He abandoned the digital medium and returned to oil painting. The Portrait Society of America awarded Ennis a Certificate of Merit in 2003, and an Honors Award in 2004 for a portrait of his son Kyle. He has since painted several hundred private and institutional portraits and has won numerous national awards. His portrait subjects include Nobel Laureate Susumu Tonegawa

Susumu Tonegawa

Susumu Tonegawa is a Japanese scientist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of the genetic mechanism that produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa is a molecular biologist by training...

, notable corporate leaders Al McNeill of Turner Corporation, and John Bryson

John Bryson

John E. Bryson is the 37th Secretary of Commerce. The Senate confirmed him by a 74–26 vote on October 20, 2011. He was sworn in on October 21, 2011...

 of Southern California Edison, the first woman headmaster of Boston Latin School

Boston Latin School

The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....

, Cornelia Kelley, and the first African American Dean of University of South Carolina Law School, Burnele Powell.

Awards

• Portrait Society of America: Certificate of Excellence, international competition 2009
• Portrait Society of America: Honorable Mention Men, Member Competition 2009
• Portrait Society of America: Fifth Place Children, Member Competition 2009
• Portrait Society of America: Honors Award, international competition 2006
• Portrait Society of America: Finalist, Children's Portrait Competition 2006
• Portrait Society of America: First Place, Self-Portrait Competition 2005
• Portrait Society of America: Honors Award international competition 2004
• Portrait Society of America: Best Portfolio, Annual Conference 2004, 2005, 2007
• Portrait Society of America: Certificate of Recognition, international competition 2003
• The Artist's Magazine's 26th Annual Art Competition: Finalist-Portrait & Figures
• The Artists Magazine's 24th Annual Art Competition: Finalist-Portrait & Figures
• The Artists Magazine's 22nd Annual Art Competition: Finalist-Portrait & Figures
• The Artists Magazine's 21st Annual Art Competition: Finalist-Portrait & Figures
• The Artists Magazine's 21st Annual Art Competition: First Place-Animal Art
• Woodmere Art Museum Annual Juried Show: Award for Portraiture
• Phillips' Mill 77th Annual Fall Exhibition: Patrons' Award