John Wayne Aebi was born in Louisville, Kentucky on December 5, 1945 to parents Willanna and Arthur. The youngest of 10 children, he grew up in Wyandotte Park in a family that encouraged involvement in the arts and described his childhood as an idyllic one, spent among “a big, loving family”.
John served four years in the US Navy in the 1960s and was stationed predominately in Iceland. He returned to Louisville in the early 1970s where he worked for JC Penny’s, Southland Terrace for 12 years, and continued to pursue formal training at Louisville School of Art in Anchorage, KY. Aebi went on to study informally under John Michael Carter in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but was largely self-taught. His earliest art consists of architectural renderings and sketches, but he is most known for antique-style portraits, impressionistic landscapes and large, breathtaking reproductions of John Singer Sargent’s most notable works.
Aebi married Susan Wallace in 1975 and lived with her in the Highlands of Louisville for 33 years in a home that doubled as his studio throughout much of his career. John had total support and encouragement from the Wallace family. Indeed many of the photographs of John’s work pictured throughout this site were taken by his father-in-law, Jimmie Wallace, a professional photographer. When not painting at home, Aebi worked in his studio on Frankfort Avenue.
In the 1980s, Aebi met Joe Ley, a Louisville antiques dealer, and a business partnership was formed that would influence Aebi’s style for years to come. Aebi would reproduce old photographs, trade cards, advertisements and portraits in life-size paintings that sold with great success.
John began to lose sight in one eye in the late 1990s, but continued to paint until macular degeneration claimed his sight in his other eye. In 1998, Aebi became legally blind. In 2003, he stopped painting for a year, until he learned of Eccentric Viewing, a technique that utilizes peripheral vision. He trained in Eccentric Viewing at Hines Rehab Hospital in Chicago and returned to painting not long after. At this point his work took on a more impressionistic style. He continued to paint almost until his death from cancer on August 29, 2008.
Aebi’s paintings have sold to The Gheens Foundation, Locust Grove, University of Kentucky Law Library, Seelbach Hilton Hotel, The Brown-Forman Collection, as well as private collectors. His work can be seen in the Artists of the Wonderland Way collection housed at Indiana University Southeast.
Stories of John’s family were the inspiration behind many of his paintings and are documented throughout this site. His preferred media was oil on canvas, but his works ranged from carvings and sculpture to pencil sketches, chalk and acrylic paintings. His signatures varied throughout his career, and for several years his paintings were unsigned. This, perhaps, speaks the most directly to the sort of man John Aebi was: curious, fearlessly creative and generous with his skill and his kindness.
