John Waterhouse

From an early age John Waterhouse had always been interested in art, gaining inspiration and encouragement from his parents, especially his mother, who had drawn and painted a little herself as a hobby.

Growing up in a rural Staffordshire village helped John Waterhouse to understand the beauty of the countryside, which he still feel so important in order to portray its true character. Being close to the subject matter is of great advantage to him for the constant reference he needs to support his work.

In 1983 at the age of sixteen, John Waterhouse left school gaining a grade A in ‘O’ level art and winning the overall school prize for best art pupil. Upon leaving school, I worked as a storekeeper in a local warehouse, painting only as a hobby in my spare time. In order to give me more time to develop my artistic skills I decided to give up my full-time job in 1994 and take up a part-time position instead.

I gave up the part-time position in 2000 in order to teach painting two days a week to young offenders in a local youth prison. I then reduced this to one day a week as the demand for my work was increasing. I have found working with these young people very rewarding, as there is so much talent that would normally be unrecognised. I have tried to encourage them to see this as a new adventure, and knowing that I may have contributed something towards turning people’s lives around has made the job worthwhile for me.

Although John Waterhouse was initially concerned about giving up his so-called ‘proper’ jobs, he finally got the confidence to turn to painting as a full-time position after seeing the quality and value of his work rise through doing various commissions for art collectors.

Once painting full-time I started showing my works by exhibiting my paintings in one of Washington Green’s Partnership Galleries. This gave me a steady flow of commissions and an increased following for my work. It also introduced my work to Glyn Washington of Washington Green and has since led to them publishing my work. Teaching myself how to draw and paint has taken many long hard hours in the studio to perfect, and it is now that I am finally starting to feel the benefit from it.

Many things inspire me to paint - from walking the fields and woodlands that surround the area where I live, to simply watching people going about their daily lives. New ideas for paintings constantly enter my head and I note many of them down on paper, so as not to forget them.

When painting a landscape, a lot of the information is there, but more often than not something extra needs to be added, or changed slightly. A cloud formation, a distant figure, or perhaps the way the light is falling. With landscapes I feel it is not so much an idea, but an ability to balance and compose, to a certain extent, what is already there. I find the English countryside very romantic. Fields and trees to me have their own character and history, just as a person does. By taking plenty of time to study the view that I am about to paint, helps me to decide the areas that require toning down and the areas that need to be made more vivid, if any, in order to emphasise it’s character.

Although I paint landscapes, I also enjoy painting people. I find this work a challenge, which is part of the attraction for me. Just by sitting on a park bench watching the world go by can fill my head with plenty of new ideas. The store of ideas is endless. As with landscape painting, it is just a matter of looking, thinking and using an imaginary form in my head. The image then needs to be etched into my mind, as unlike a landscape, the subject matter may not stay still for very long, leaving me to reconstruct my ideas using models etc.