John VanderWerf was born in The Netherlands, migrated with his family to Australia in 1953 and lived in Mt Evelyn for most of his life. He has worked as a Visual Merchandiser since he was 18 years old and managed his own Visual Merchandising Business for the past 28 years, which has included designing and building Christmas sets and exhibitions in major Shopping Centres and Trade Fairs.
John has always enjoyed experimenting with paints as a hobby throughout his working life. In 2002 he began water colour lessons. Since then John has exhibited & sold some of his artwork in various art exhibitions including an exhibition at Lady Hawke Café in Mt Dandenong, being the artist of the month, and through the Sherbrooke Art Society Gallery, of which he is a member
In both 2008 and 2009 John won many awards in the Lilydale Show including ‘Best Exhibit’ and ‘First Prize’.
John has a strong desire for experimenting with a variety of mediums where his natural inclination aims for something novel and new, and the use of synthetic materials which form some of his contemporary artwork giving a 3 Dimensional perspective.
In 2011 John started his most recent form of artwork making sculptures from aluminium composite. This material is hard wearing and non-fading, often seen on the outside of buildings as coloured panels or used for business signage. John has been able to transform these panels into imaginative pieces of art by cutting and bending the material manually into sculptures suitable for wall hangings, table centre pieces and garden ornaments. All works of art are original pieces and displays the creativity of John’s work
He received a ‘highly recommended’ award at the Spring Awards Exhibition at the Sherbrooke Art Society in 2016 and 2018.
John won ‘Best 3D Artwork’ at the Mount View Art Show in 2019 | 
