John Pedder enjoys woodcut printing because it slows him down, allowing him to invest more of himself in apparently simple marks.
Unlike most artists, Pedder has spent most of his life avoiding the sophistication that experience and refined craft skills will inevitably bring, using his time instead to constantly distil concepts to their most basic forms, interested on certain features which provide the greatest emotive response. His main motive is the basic need to create. The subject matter tends to deal with the nobility of life: finding the honour and goodness in a person, a deed, a situation, coupled with a large helping of humour - an aesthetic journey using craft skills to try to make sense of an increasingly bewildering world - with a few laughs along the way... what’s not to like?
Notable exhibitions include ‘Not All Black and White’ at That Art Gallery and 'Big Impressions of Small Mercies' at Ben Oakley gallery in 2021. John Pedder has also recently released his book 'Small Mercies', which documents 81 of his woodcut prints over 170 pages. The book is now available in the ART808 bookstore while stocks last.
Liverpool-born John Pedder trained as an artist and printmaker in Hull, before moving to Sheffield, where he now lives and works.
Motivated by his innate desire to create, and fascination for imitation, his pared-down works depict the human experience, often with a humorous twist. His prints have an immediacy to them, while his woodblocks retain a sculptural quality borne from the printing process.
John works from a studio littered with found objects and featuring a ‘sketch wall’ papered with ideas drawn on scraps of paper, card, and wood - and of course his print blocks. Previously a theatre set designer, a musician, a builder and an antiques dealer, his increasing popularity among art-lovers and collectors has allowed him to concentrate on creating full time, which, he says, is what he has always known he should be doing.
Following the success of his solo exhibition at That Art Gallery in Bristol (UK) and the publication of Small Mercies, an informative book of his print designs and their inspirations, we are proud to offer a small selection of his work.
John Pedder has always considered that the tools and medium he uses are of little importance. In his recent exhibition, ‘Not All Black and White’, Pedder famously said "If all other colours [besides black, white, and red] disappeared overnight it would be a crying shame, but I would get over it, shockingly quickly.
"Making the decision to fully embrace two dimension, Pedder wants his work to pop from the surface of the paper. This reductive approach seperates him from most artists and often provides a more emotive and striking image, distilled to the very essence of a concept.
