John Heywood is an artist printmaker who has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Scottish Society of Artists and the Visual Arts Society of Scotland. He works almost exclusively in the medium of etching and has exhibited in numerous galleries in the UK including Edinburgh and Cambridge.
Although I studied art at Lancaster University my work didn't really get going until I joined the Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop in the mid 1980s. I was inspired by the city of Edinburgh and would do etchings which were really a response to living and working in this beautiful city
I have been a member of Edinburgh Printmakers since the mid-80s and worked almost exclusively in Etching. We used traditional methods for a number of years before progressing to safe etching techniques 15 or so years ago. My work has been influenced by this process and I have moved from drawing directly onto the plate to currently using a combination of photo etching and drawing through a ground. I am currently interested in drawing directly from life and then converting this into an etching via the photec process.
My work has always been drawing based. I like to capture an atmosphere in the image and re-create a time of day or a moment in time. This helps the viewer connect with the work and makes for a shared experience. A work which has always stuck in my mind was a small oil painting by Corot of a farmer driving some cows from a field in the early morning; I think it was called "early morning". He simply managed to capture a moment in time some 150 years ago and you are there with him. That is what I aspire to in my work.
Selected Exhibitions
Di Rollo Gallery Edinburgh 2011
Paxton House Berwickshire 2010
Flat Cat Gallery, Lauder 2010
Printfest Ulverston , Cumbria 2009
Flaubert Gallery Edinburgh 2008
Byard Art, Cambridge 2007
My work can be seen on display at a number of galleries including Edinburgh Printmakers, Byard Art and the Di Rollo Gallery.
I left school with 1 GCE in Art and worked in the Shipyard in Barrow in Furness before going to Lancaster University in the mid 70's where I developed my lifelong interest in Fine art. I moved to Edinburgh in 1979 and discovered the Edinburgh Printmakers from where I established myself as an artist/printmaker. I have had the opportunity to explore other mediums but have so far always returned to Etching as a favoured means of expressing ideas about landscape and the urban environment.
