As a boy Brunton "showed such a passionate inclination towards drawing and painting, that his father prudently allowed him to suit his own tastes in choosing a profession".

As well as his artistic skills, William Glover "was an enthusiastic devotee" of both fencing and boxing and instilled a love of these sports onto his young protégé ("who proved no dullard").

As Brunton progressed at fencing "the two scene painters – master and pupil – to show their skill to an admiring world, gave the famous broadsword combat in Rob Roy in public during a revival of that play".

Glover had a custom whereby each year he took his apprentices "to some selected spot in the Western Highlands, where they encamped for a few weeks, living a delightfully Bohemian existence".

[8] After his seven-year apprenticeship with Glover, Brunton was engaged as a scenic artist for twelve months at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, county Devon.

At his scene-painting studio in Liverpool, Brunton maintained a social space which his friends and acquaintances kept "well supplied with cigars and light refreshments of a spiritous kind".

A critic for the Edinburgh Courant newspaper commented on the scenery in the play (which was described as "most effective"): "So conscious were the audience of this that at the commencement of each act the artist was called for".

[20] In March 1886, prior to his departure for Australia, Brunton exhibited a collection of his paintings, comprising landscapes and seascapes, at the Liverpool Art Gallery.

In a review of the exhibition a critic writing in the theatrical trade journal, The Era, described Brunton's work as possessing "a fanciful imagination and an ardent love of nature" supported by "solid technical acquirements gained in the best school".

[23] In early October 1886 the "nautical opera" Billee Taylor made its Australian premiere at the Theatre Royal in Sydney (which included in the cast the newly-arrived English comedian William Elton in the role of 'Ben Barnacle').

[25] On 27 December 1886 Williamson, Garner and Musgrove's production of Robinson Crusoe, written and arranged by Alfred Maltby, opened at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne.

[27] During 1887 Brunton was involved in the following theatrical productions: In February 1888 the celebrated English actor Charles Warner arrived in Australia under engagement by Williamson, Garner and Musgrove.

In preparing the scenery for The Gondoliers, Brunton was assisted by Phil Goatcher, a scenic artist who had returned to Australia from America under contract by Williamson.

[13] Williamson, Garner and Co.'s production of Aladdin was performed in Melbourne at the Theatre Royal during January and February 1891, starring the popular British actress Jennie Lee in the lead role.

[42] Other Williamson, Garner & Co. productions during 1891, featuring Brunton's scenic designs, included Moths (adapted from a novel by Ouida) and Bridget O'Brien, Esq.

His scenery for Aladdin (probably the paintings from Williamson and Garner's production a year earlier) were used in Adelaide for the pantomime produced by Wybert Reeve at the Theatre Royal, which premiered on Boxing Day 1892.

[48] In Melbourne new scenery by Brunton was featured in the pantomime for the 1892-3 holiday season, Babes in the Wood, Bold Robin Hood and his Foresters Good, presented at the Theatre Royal by George Coppin in collaboration with Bland Holt.

The reviewer attributed the success of the painting to "the beauty of a distant view, framed by the foliage of the trees into a charming medallion of sapphire sea surrounding a green islet, above which rose a stately mansion".

Another scene, in the last act of The Double Event, depicted the gardens of Mayfield House at Potts Point, beyond which was disclosed "a distant view of the harbour by night, with the lights of Fort Macquarie and the oceangoing steamers gleaming above the water, and the dark shores beyond bluely outlined beneath the moon-lit sky".

[54] From the mid- to late-1890s John Brunton increasingly worked for Bland Holt, the theatrical manager known for his spectacular touring productions of melodramas and pantomimes.

[55] In September 1896 it was reported that Brunton had been engaged by Holt at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, to replace W. B. Spong who was expected to depart for England early in 1897.

[60] Holt's production of Woman and Wine at Melbourne's Theatre Royal in April 1899 featured "Wonder-Compelling Tableaux" by John Brunton, the scenes consisting of "a French Racecourse", "The Boulevard Cafe", "The Japanese Ball", "The Paris Flower Market", "The Blind Man's Vision" and "The Trial at Le Palais de Justice".

[61] In December 1902 the Bland Holt Company presented The Breaking of the Drought at the Lyceum Theatre in Sydney, written by the English playwright Arthur Shirley.

[62] The Daily Telegraph reviewer was critical of Brunton's depiction of an "out-back station homestead" in Act 1, which more closely resembled "a suburban cottage".

[63] In April 1908 Brunton's daughter Dorothy made her stage debut, aged seventeen years, as a flower girl in Bland Holt's production of The White Heather at the Theatre Royal in Adelaide.

[64] Following her debut in The White Heather, Brunton was cast in a series of productions presented by Bland Holt's Dramatic Company at the Theatre Royal in Adelaide.

A local newspaper report of his visit remarked that he was "keenly alive to the artistic value of the huge weather-stained and dust-begrimed piles of surface buildings which lend a picturesque aspect to the line of mines".

[67] In April 1909 the Bland Holt Company began a season in Brisbane, opening with The Great Millionaire at His Majesty's Theatre, which featured "beautiful examples of the scene painter's art by Mr. John Brunton".

The Great Rescue opened at the Theatre Royal in early June 1909, with scenery by Brunton illustrating "Northern Queensland and the Wombat mine".