John Hagan, who is a world-renowned Artist, travels extensively, lecturing, public demonstrations, solo exhibitions, and is represented in private collections in the US, Canada, Australia, Italy, UK and other parts of Europe, has taught and practiced the art of painting for most of his life. Currently his drawing and painting lessons are used by hundreds of Schools and Universities around the world either via the Internet or directly from his CD 'John Hagan's Art Lessons. He has been titled as the #1 Art Teacher on the Internet, providing lesson notes for the major Internet education portal of GEM, a special White House Educational funded initiative, Wet Canvas and through the Cowdisley Education Group - his Internet site. During his early days, teaching Senior High School, John designed a basic course for learning to draw that has helped a generation of youngsters to become visually literate and inspired them to a future as artists, draftsmen, designers and architects.

John was classically trained and learned his craft through formal education in England (1966 - 69) and Australia (64 -66) and by studying (1971-75) under a Master Painter William Ross RA, who traced his own training via the Julian Ashton School to the great academic painters of the nineteenth century. Subsequently, John Hagan has mastered the techniques of both the 19th Century classic painting method as well as the 20th Century impressionistic manner and has a unique ability to blend them if it is required.



Just over three years ago, the American pay TV History Channel couldn't find a single drawing or painting of Fletcher Christian, one of the key players on the Bounty. In searching websites, they found a portrait of Fletcher Christian painted by John Hagan, who told them he'd gleaned descriptions of Fletcher Christian from 20 years of studying the Bounty. And, he'd also come across a drawing of Fletcher Christian's half-Polynesian son, Friday. John feels his portrait of Fletcher Christian is about as close as anyone could accurately paint and felt it was his duty as an Artist to fill in this gap of Art History. Ten of John Hagan's paintings of his 'Bounty' series, including seascapes and portraits of Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian, all done in 'classic period style were featured in a History Channel documentary of the 'Bounty Story' first screened, 10th. April 2001 as well as in articles in 'British Heritage' magazine and another nine paintings in a recent Educational Documentary. Presently, John is writing the finishing touches to his sequel of Mutiny on the Bounty, which he plans to make available later this year.



John Hagan works totally with 'artist' quality pigments, the most reliable of oils and varnishes, on heavy top quality inert stretched canvas or wooden panels. If handled properly the pieces are certain to show no canvas rot, de-lamination or any other structural problems for 500 years, or longer.

An excellent example of one of John Hagan's classical art is his Portrait of Shakespeare. John thoroughly studied examples painted by previous Artists and Engravers to create his own interpretation of Shakespeare. Also included in his study was a phrenological drawing of Shakespeare's skull dated 1807. At present, the original skull of Shakespeare remains undiscovered but some rumours claim otherwise. You can view and read more detailed information how John Hagan used his superb artistic talents to paint his Portrait of Shakespeare.

John is presently taking a break from painting and following his other passion buying gemstones. The understanding is that there is little between the underlying principles of fine art and fine jewelery, particulary in the way light and color works and of what makes something beautiful and appealing. Lead paint can turn into gold with the competent artist just as some common mineral might become a unique ruby or sapphire in the hands of master jewelers.

To find John's lessons for painting or drawing just search Google for 'painting lessons' or 'drawing lessons' and they are usually in the top two... and they are free. Failing that look up 'Cowdisley' or 'John Hagan'.

Notes on Ruby Treatments

Sometimes a ruby will have dense silk clouds and a strong purplish color, making the stones look like low-grade, cloudy rhodolite garnet. This is mainly due to the crystal's unusual blue cores. Ordinary heat-treatment removes the blue, as well as removing silk, making the final product a rich, clear red. The market generally accepts such heated stones without a quibble.

Some rubies are heavily fractured and Thai burners have combated the cracking by healing the cracks with a flux such as borax. Heating the stones with borax and other chemicals actually melts their surfaces, including the surfaces of cracks. The corundum within this molten material then redeposits on the fracture surfaces, filling and healing the fractures shut. Undigested material cools into pockets of flux glass. Essentially this amounts to a microscopic deposition of synthetic ruby to heal the cracks closed. This treatment is permanent and irreversible, the remnant pockets of flux will not drain out in the future, nor can they be removed.This treatment actually improves a stone's durability, since the fractures are healed shut. In many respects, it is a welding of fractures, similar to the joining of two pieces of metal with heat and a flux to lower their melting point.

The thing is that nearly all rubies in Thailand show some residues so we must assume they have been flux healed. The amount of residue in the ruby determines how little or many cracks were healed. If there are 'residues insignificant' then there has been very little healing, if any at all.

The term 'glass filling' is very misleading as many 'chemicals' are added to the heating process, and the folk who do the treatments are extremely secretive about their process. This has created a very real problem, where the enhancement is generally accepted by Thailand-based dealers/gemologists, but rejected by those outside the country. The result is that goods are returned amidst much name-calling and hand-wringing, a situation from which only lawyers will benefit. Compounding the problem is the fact that laboratories around the world do not have uniform methods of describing or dealing with this enhancement. Some cannot even properly identify it or distinguish between naturally-occurring inclusions and the flux healing.

My own opinion, for what it is worth, is that if the changes are permanent and the ruby is clear with good color it certainly worth collecting. As to the cost; a 2ct. unheated, clear ruby might fetch $10,000 per carat whereas ruby of similar quality that has been treated might be purchased for one tenth that amount.

NATURAL OR SYNTHETIC?

Beware of any who make rash decisions regarding whether a ruby is synthetic or natural for it is not that simple!
There are many types of synthetic rubies and some are relatively easy to spot with a trained eye and the right equipment (a gemological microscope with immersion liquids and/or diffused lighting). For example, if we see internal structures under magnification called "curved striae" -- end of story, the stone is a synthetic ruby. If we see a microscopic inclusion of a sort called a "fingerprint" -- we have a natural stone. But, what if the stone is flawless or if the inclusions are ambiguous -- can be seen in either natural or synthetic (very commonly this is the case). At that point a big gem lab with expensive high tech equipment may be the only way to get an accurate ID

Synthetic ruby can often be distinguished gemologically by the observation of inclusions, color zoning, and growth features (Liddicoat, 1981; Hughes, 1997; Lu and Shigley, 1998). When such visual characteristics are not present or cannot be seen, natural and synthetic rubies can be identified on the basis of their trace element chemistry as determined by the energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence method (Muhlmeister et al., 1998). Trace elements such as nickel, molybdenum, lanthanum, tungsten, platinum, lead, or bismuth may be detected in synthetic ruby, as a result of growth in a laboratory environment. The relative proportions of the transition metals chromium, iron, vanadium, and titanium also varies between natural and synthetic rubies, and can be used to distinguish between them.

Synthetic rubies and emeralds both often glow brighter red than their natural counterparts. Both are much more transparent to 253.7 nm radiation than the naturals and this forms a test using contact immersion photography or by using apiece of (blue fluorescing) scheelite as an indicator. The suspect stone is placed over a hole in an opaque material with the scheelite below the stone and a short wave UV source above. If the scheelite fluoresces it is receiving light through the suspect stone and it is a synthetic stone. It should be noted that some new synthetics do not pass UV light.

Secondary fluid inclusions in patterns of infinite variety and thickness; often referred to as fingerprints or feathers. CO2 is a common filling, in both liquid and gaseous forms. Produced by the healing of fractures, their patterns may often be "wispy" or "veil-like," and so are easily confused with flux inclusions in synthetic corundums. Their surfaces should be examined under high magnification with fiber-optic lighting to determine if fluid (natural) or flux (synthetic) fills the small channels. As natural stones healed over a much longer period of time, their healing patterns are often far more detailed. The higher viscosity of a flux also contributes to coarser and less detailed healing in flux-grown synthetics.