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.

John Heywood at work

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