John Pedder says that woodcut printing slows him down. It means he can invest more of himself in what are apparently simple marks. His main motive is the basic need to create. He has spent most of his life avoiding the sophistication that experience and refined craft skills will inevitably bring. Instead, he uses his time and skills to distil concepts to their most basic forms and focuses on the features that will generate the greatest emotive response.
John’s subject matter deals with the nobility of life. He looks for the honour and goodness in a person, deed, or situation, and couples this with a large helping of humour. He uses craft skills and design to give us an aesthetic journey making sense of an increasingly bewildering world.
John Pedder was born in Liverpool, trained as an artist and printmaker in Hull, and now lives and works in Sheffield. He works from a studio littered with found objects and a ‘sketch wall’. This is full of ideas sketched on paper, card and wood; and of course includes his print blocks.
Previously a theatre set designer, musician, builder and antiques dealer, John can now concentrate full-time on his art.
We are thrilled to be able to offer a selection of his work as part of featured@fair trader in July.
