JOSHUA WATERHOUSE RP: MY TEACHER
“At school I was taught by a man called John McGowan. John was and still is an wonderful printmaker, principally a screen printer. John taught me from the age of 13-16. He encouraged me to chart my own course as a young artist. Perhaps a little fixed in my ideas as a pupil, another art teacher wrote in a school report that ‘I made a mule look cooperative’. John very dextrously encouraged me to progress in my drawing and painting without attempting to make me change my whole approach.
John taught by example. Before embarking on various projects he would show us examples of his own work that he had made in anticipation of the new project. His work was always excellent, and reassured the young me that I was in very safe hands. While he didn’t succeed in turning me into a printmaker (he never tried), he did instill in me a love of printmaking and printers like John Piper.
As adults we are friends, and I own several of his prints, and he one of my drawings. Not long ago my wife and I spent a very happy day printing in John’s studio. A week earlier he’d sent us sheets of acrylic and some etching tools and told us to do our worst. I am very grateful to have had such a gifted and generous teacher as John so early on in my life.”
-Joshua Waterhouse RP
John McGowan, ‘West Street Oundle’
