John Illsley (born in Leicester in 1949) is an English musician best known as the bassist and founding member of Dire Straits, a band he played with from its formation in 1977 until its dissolution in 1995. His work as a painter is less well known, but according to the sources it became the pursuit he turned to most after the band broke up, and he describes painting as his favourite hobby.
Illsley grew up in Market Harborough, on the border between Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, and studied Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, before turning to music. After 1995 he devoted himself increasingly to painting. His first exhibition was shown at the Nevill Keating McIlroy Gallery in Pickering Place, London, in 2007. The sources consulted do not describe his paintings in detail or identify a particular style that would characterise his work.
His name remains linked mainly to Dire Straits, which became one of the best-known English-speaking rock groups of the mid-1980s, and to his solo albums Never Told a Soul (1984) and Glass (1988). Since 2005 he has also performed with the group Cunla, which focuses on charity concerts. His career as a painter has received less attention than his music, and his legacy in that field is poorly documented.