John Heywood-Waddington
In 2024 John completed his first art residency at Nocefresca in Sardinia. He’s also had a number of paintings selected by Collectum, a New York-based art consultancy, who will also be showing his artwork at the AVA hotel and gallery in Cancun in 2025. John had artwork selected for the AKA Winter Exhibition, the Pastel Society annual exhibition in the Mall Galleries, the Green & Stone Gallery Winter Show and the Hampstead Art Society online works on paper. In 2025, he will be exhibiting as part of a collective called Dreamscapes with four other artists at XYZ gallery space, in Chancery Lane.
Almost camouflaged, the figures in John Heywood-Waddington’s paintings often echo the tones of the surrounding landscape. They are distinct, but only just. Seemingly quick, gestural marks one moment conceal space, the next opening it up. Oil paint partially covers the lines drawn out with oil bars. The paintings constantly toy with questions of how much and what to give the viewer. Often, they err on the line of ‘just enough’, ensuring a two-way relationship between artist and viewer. The viewer has something to grapple with, yet in return, must work to unpick the image. When we do register the figure, identifying details remain hidden. Conversely, this concealment is an act of generosity, opening up the paintings and giving them a universality that makes the images so compelling.
