John Williamson

I was born and raised in Rotherham and worked at Parkgate Iron and Steel straight from school. Eventually I left to study Graphic Design at Birmingham Art College and followed this by undertaking an Art Teaching Diploma at Liverpool University. I then spent the next forty years teaching Art in Merseyside and Sefton. It would be tempting as a Yorkshireman to call this my overseas missionary service, but in reality it was a real privilege to work with some amazing art teachers and wonderfully talented students.
Along the way I gained an M.Des at Liverpool University School of Architecture and began to take my own work a little more seriously.
My father was a steel worker from Scotland and an excellent artist who made pictures on any surface to hand and I believe that many of his drawings must still exist on the plaster beneath the wallpaper in our past Rotherham houses. Art and in particular drawing has always been in my life. My daughter, an art teacher, is studying for an MSc in Art Therapy while my grand daughter (age 6) has set up her easel alongside mine in my tiny studio.
For many, art is relaxing, healing, contemplative, an expression of self, or even life enhancing, all genuinely felt and believed, but for me it is always a struggle, a never ending effort to allow others to join me in what I am seeing.
The majority of my subject sources are marine and mainly drawn from the Yorkshire and North East Coasts. I spend many hours there, particularly in the places where people work or have built structures. Harbours, docks, jetties, piers, industry, boats and ships are visual magnets and I usually sit for hours just looking. Realism is fundamental to my approach, but I hope with a touch of melancholy. I am all too aware of how transient my subjects are and most should have long disappeared under the wheels of progress. Some have already passed. There is always a sadness about my work because I realise that when I paint I am capturing fleeting glimpses of a time that soon will be no longer.

Some images about me

Click to enlarge.

" The person who first inspired me to draw was Miss Hayes at Alma Rd. Infants School Rotherham. In the early 1950's she was young but was decades ahead of her time in her understanding of how important the creative process is to learning. Whenever she saw us struggling she tipped out wax crayons from the two bulging pockets of her paisley patterned smock which were full of them, and she would encourage us to doodle as we rethought the problem. The smell of the warm wax crayons worked like a soothing balm as we relaxed into a world of colour and pattern. Throughout almost forty years working as an art teacher, whenever children were opening boxes of wax crayons to work with I used to tell them that 'this smell reminds me of Miss Hayes' and relate the story. Unfortunately I never did thank her for the effect that she had on my life. However, I remain convinced that every child needs a 'Miss Hayes' in their early life as schools continue to abandon creative activities for science and maths, j Williamson"

My website https://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/john-williamson

Additional links

https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1730151

https://williamsonjf.wixsite.com/john-williamson-art/marine

Telephone 01695 574307

Connection to Yorkshire

I think this is covered in my artists statement but I living in lancashire for over fifty years has not diluted my yorkshireness

John Williamson

John Williamson

Some images about me

John Williamson's art

Seven Children and a Dad Crabbing at Runswick Bay

Five Children crabbing at Runswick Bay

Three Children Crabbing at Runswick Bay

The River Wyre Ferry at Knott End

St. Abbs (Water Colour)

Sea Houses Lifeboat Crew

Categories

Seven Children and a Dad Crabbing at Runswick Bay

Five Children crabbing at Runswick Bay

Three Children Crabbing at Runswick Bay

The River Wyre Ferry at Knott End

St. Abbs (Water Colour)

Sea Houses Lifeboat Crew

Fixing Valhalla

Three boats on the Tees

True Love at Staithes

Seaforth Dock

Fort Perch Rock

Ben Reoch on the River Mersey

The Black Swan on the River Douglas

Red Boat at South Gare (Water Colour)

Abandoned boats on Mull

Red Coble river Tees (water colour sketch)

Nesting Cormorant (water colour sketch)

The Common Cormorant (water colour sketch)

Waiting for the Tide

Summer Rose

Farne Island Puffins

watercolour sketch at seahouses

Inner Farne Light House (water colour sketch)

Sea Houses Lifeboat and Crew (water colour sketch)

The red boat (South GareWatercolour)

'Auld Reekie' at Crinan

Porth Gain Fisherman

The Farne Island Pinnacles

Passing the Wyre Light

Corus Steel Redcar

Crab Fishing at Staithes

The Blue Boat River Tees

Seahouses Slipway

Corus Steel and Fishermen's Huts

Landing Crabs at Flamborough

Staithes early morning

Low Tide River Dee

Corus Steel Redcar

Mending 'Good Fellowship' 1

Paddling With Purpose

Oystercatchers at Redcar

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Mending 'Good Fellowship' Seahouses

Interview

John Williamson's art

Seven Children and a Dad Crabbing at Runswick Bay

Five Children crabbing at Runswick Bay

Three Children Crabbing at Runswick Bay

The River Wyre Ferry at Knott End

St. Abbs (Water Colour)

Sea Houses Lifeboat Crew

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Past Exhibitions