[1] After studying briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris, Everett's life took an unconventional path when he embarked on the first of his 16 sea voyages.

He signed on in the London docks, as a working member of the crew of the sailing ship Iquique in 1898, travelling to Sydney and returning in 1899.

[1] After their marriage, he and his wife Katherine initially lived in Fitzroy Street, London, and went on honeymoon at sea, arranging passage to Australia on a 700-ton barque.

The trip took 117 days and was intended as an opportunity for John Everett to paint, but according to his wife's autobiography it was "...the one thing he had not done and never did on that voyage.

"[3] Around 1904 the Herberts moved to Wool in Dorset, renting the Woolbridge Manor House that belonged to a Mrs. Drax and had been the home of the Turbervilles.

In Katherine's own words "In the past, if things had been uncomfortable, as for instance directly after my babies were born, Herbert went away, perhaps to Paris or Cornwall or I might not know where he was.

[8] After this point, John Everett made no effort to see or pay for the education of his children, and his wife Katherine looked after them exclusively.

[9] During the First World War, wartime security regulations restricted Everett from sketching outdoors, however in the spring of 1918, the Ministry of Information asked him to depict London river scenes.

[17] 1938 marked his last voyage and World War II put an end to his travels, he was to paint and make prints from memory and notes from that point on.