Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the need to earn a living drove him to “do the rounds” with his portfolio under his arm.  Full of admiration for the craft of illustrators, designers, letterers, and layout people all of whom came under the label of “commercial artists”, he gradually established a reputation of his own for figure work and colourful secnery. Looking back on those pre-War years, he recalled the effort and disappointments linked to such work. He would paint some elaborate scene for an unspecified advertisement, only to see it end up obscured by a photograph of a car engine. Later the new print market of the 1950s and 60s gave him more freedom and income to supplement his fine art work and portraits.

‘Strevs’
John Strevens signed these best-selling greetings cards and prints of the mid 1960s ‘Strev’, half his name, he joked, for half his talent. Having to cover a mortgage, having bought a house for the first time in Loughton, Essex just as he turned 60, Strevens painted a series of popular cards published by Royles printers, of young children inspired by his second wife’s Julia’s daughter Bridget and her friends. The most successful of these were Harriet (a dark-haired girl in a bonnet with a cat) and Amanda with a dog, and they hit the news in the UK selling well over 2 million copies.  Call them retro kitsch, shabby chic or commercial pot boilers, Strevens’ distinctive painterly technique brought colour and a lot of pleasure to many in mostly working-class homes across Britain and they remain sought after.