John is a self-taught third generation papercut artist following in the footsteps of Arthur Forrester (John's grandfather) and John Forrester (John's uncle).

Arthur began cutting silhouette profiles in the early 1920's. His main studios were at Bournemouth, Weston-Super-Mare, Blackpool and finally at Brighton. On his death, his son John took over the Brighton studio and continued to cut profiles until 1976.

In 1990 John Speight, having returned from Nepal where he had been working in forestry, was looking for a change of career. He had for many years regretted his choice not to pursue a career in art. At this time he discovered a carrier bag full of his uncle's black paper and immediately saw an opportunity to correct his earlier decision. He realised that the paper's use wasn't limited to traditional portraits, and he set about creating a range of contemporary silhouette designs.

His first designs were of local scenes which proved popular with holidaymakers, but requests from local residents for pictures depicting their special interests launched John into a whole range of subjects as diverse as Kendo and Camels. While trying to maintain an ever-changing range of about 150 designs John is now also working on the development of other styles of art.